Sawa and Avila break 2011 ducks with Ordos victories

 Keita Sawa (LKM) and Rodolfo Avila (Team Jebsen) both scored their first Porsche Carrera Cup Asian victories of the season at Chinese venue Ordos, promoting the latter to the championship lead.

Race one victor Sawa was the beneficiary of a last lap colission between long-time leader Alexandre Imperatori (Team StarChase) and Darryl O’Young (LKM), the Swiss racer fighting too hard to keep his rival at bay. Imperatori would recover to finish second but was subsequently hit with a 30-second time penalty for his clash with O'Young, relegating him to ninth place. As a result Avila was classified second with Brian Wong (Absolute Racing) completing the podium.

“I thought I would wait and see if something would happen – and it did!” said Sawa. “I saw the incident and thought something like that was possible as Darryl and Alex were very close together. But that is racing.”

Victory in race one handed Sawa pole for the second run, but it was second place starter Avila who triumphed here. Sawa made a good getaway to hold his lead, but Avila remained close behind. When the Japanese racer made an error at turn 14 Avila pounced, snatching the lead from the LKM driver. The Macanese racer would remain out front for the duration.

Sawa's LKM team-mate O’Young came home second, ahead of Imperatori. The Swiss driver produced a sterling driver to climb from ninth on the grid to grab the final podium spot. Sawa meanwhile faded to fourth at the flag.

“It feels great to win – I did not win a race in the championship last year and I was starting to think that maybe I had forgotten what it felt like,” said Avila afterwards. “The first lap was good, my tyres were up to temperature a little earlier than Sawa’s and I tried to pass him but he closed the door. He made a little mistake at the end of the lap and I managed to pass. The car and tyres worked perfectly and I just kept going to the flag. It feels good to lead the championship!”

Avila's lead is a slender one, with Imperatori just one point behind the Jebsen racer following the Ordos double header. Sawa now sits third, a further 14 points back. The series resumes with a trip to Malaysian venue Sepang over the weekend of August 26-28.

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James Weeks