A double victory earns Baird a championship lead!
Photos: PR Plus
SC Global Racing’s Craig Baird does a double at Rounds 7 and 8 of the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia at the 2010 FORMULA 1 SINGTEL SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX to wrest the championship lead from reigning title holder Christian Menzel of Team StarChase.
SC Global Racing’s Craig Baird first put in a stellar performance in Round 7, on Singapore’s challenging 5.067km Marina Bay street circuit to clinch the first Asian victory of his career. Despite dramatically changing track conditions, the New Zealander held off FIA World Touring Car Championship driver and former Porsche Carrera Cup Asia champion Darryl O’Young, to take a spectacular win in the gruelling 12 lap race. Just 0.347 seconds separated the pair at the flag, with Hong Kong’s Marchy Lee third across the line, ahead of Team Jebsen’s Rodolfo Avila of Macau. The race for Class B honours was just as intense, with championship leader and category pole man Mok Weng Sun taking his seventh straight victory of the season, ahead of rival Ringo Chong and Jean Marc Merlin, who manfully held off a determined Philip Ma of Hong Kong until the final laps.
In Round 8, Baird’s brilliant pole-to-flag run saw him hold off a spirited challenge from Red Bull Racing’s Marchy Lee as the Marina Bay street circuit took its toll on the Hong Kong racer’s tyres. Third across the line was LKM Racing Team’s Darryl O’Young, who had started alongside Baird on the grid for the start of the second race.
In Class B, Team Porsche Club Singapore’s Mok Weng Sun took his eighth victory of the season, continuing his superb unbroken run of wins. Ringo Chong of Team Kangshun was once again second in the category, with Pauian Archiland Team’s Jeffrey Lee third.
Off the line, Baird led the pack, but faced a serious challenge from O’Young in the early stages. He survived to hold the lead, and soon the two Hong Kong drivers were locked in an intense battle behind him. By the end of the opening lap, Menzel had already climbed to sixth, and was heading for Mok, taking him on the following lap.
O’Young couldn’t escape the attentions of Lee, who was intent on getting by, while Baird pulled out a gap at the front. Menzel began closing on Team Jebsen’s Rodolfo Avila who was running in fourth. Lee finally found a way past O’Young on lap five, and began the charge to Baird, cutting the New Zealander's lead by the following lap to just two hundredths of a second, before dropping back as his tyres began to wear. Menzel got by Avila, who had lost a front splitter, just two laps from the flag.
Baird's second victory of the weekend with a margin of more than two seconds, gives him a margin of four points at the top of the championship leader board. Lee lies third, ten points behind Menzel, and the championship race is now wide open with four rounds still to go of the 2010 season. Mok now leads the Class B category by an impressive 55 points from Chong, with Francis Tjia of OpenRoad Racing just six points behind him in third.