NO REWARD FOR GOOD PACE AT SPA FOR HO-PIN TUNG IN SECOND FIA-WEC RACE

The venue for this seasons second FIA-WEC race was the legendary circuit of Spa Francorchamps in the Belgian Ardennes, this weekend. The Baxi DC Racing Team Alpine was fast in the LM P 2 class all free practises, but results in qualifying and the race did not reward the teams efforts and did not reflect the promising speed of the early practises.

´The car performed better than at Silverstone and so did the team´, Ho-Pin Tung looks back. During qualifying the Baxi DC Racing Team Alpine were hindered by a red flag situation and the use of only one set of tyres did not help either. In the six hours race Nelson Panciatici, Ho-Pin Tung and David Cheng did each two stints respectively. Frenchman Pantiatici was the one to bring the Alipne A460 Nissan to the finish. In one of the very first laps Pianciatici had a touché, making him loose precious time, but the car had no damage. Ho-Pin Tung began his two stints on four new tyres   and made impressive progress through the field. A ´full course yellow´ meant a disadvantage for the team and when David Cheng had taken over the wheel a pit stop infringment caused a drive through penalty. The penalty was extra unfortunate for the team, because it just dropped back an extra lap. The last few laps it should have been Panciatici to bring the car to the finish, but unfortunately he collided with another car in an attempt to overtake in La Source . This meant end of the race for the team with the finish in sight.

With good hope the team now will prepare for the 24 hours of Le Mans, in June. ´The big one´ Ho-Pin Tung looks forward with a smile to this most prestigeous long distance race of all. The car performed better this weekend than at Silverstone and if we can make another step forward I am optimistic for my fourth participation in this iconic race.

Spa Francorchamps, May 7, 2016.