Porsche

Asian series Korea qualifying results

Kwan Grabs Pole for Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Korean Clash Team Infineon-Novellus driver Charles Kwan grabbed pole position for the 20- lap Round 8 showdown at Korea's 2.5km Taebaek Circuit today after a faultless performance. The Hong Kong ...

Edited: Aug 26, 2003, 1:54 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Kwan Grabs Pole for Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Korean Clash

Team Infineon-Novellus driver Charles Kwan grabbed pole position for the 20- lap Round 8 showdown at Korea's 2.5km Taebaek Circuit today after a faultless performance.

The Hong Kong driver, one of the region's most experienced and successful, neatly put his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car on pole with a time of 00:57.759, on just his sixth lap of the session. Kwan, who credited his performance to his fresh Michelin tyres for the session, was certainly not complacent about the race. "The times are so close, we'll have to see what happens. My starts have not really been great this season, but they are picking up."

Briton Nigel Albon, currently third in the overall championship standings, was mortified not to have taken the top spot, but sporting nonetheless. "I should have been first!" he exclaimed, although he is already looking forward to tomorrow's race. "It's a nice track and it's going to be really close in the race," he said. "Especially between Charles (Kwan), Nattavude and myself. It'll be a good show."

Arch rival Fuspeed Racing's Charoensukhawatana Nattavude of Thailand set the third quickest time of 00:58.192.

UPS driver Matthew Marsh will start from fourth on the grid, and the Briton admitted he had not taken full advantage of the new Michelins fitted during the session. However, he had a clear tactic for the race itself. "I'm quite pleased to be fourth as the three drivers ahead of me are extremely competent and quick, and my tactic will be to keep the field behind me as far away as possible!" he said.

Porsche Asia Pacific VIP driver for the weekend, Korean movie star Ryu Siwon, acquitted himself well and is certainly enjoying his first outing in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car. "I am absolutely loving driving the car," he enthused. "The other drivers are really good and today was my first experience of both the car and the circuit. I'm getting used to the car very quickly and I'm happy to be racing."

The star also earned praise from Porsche Carrera Cup Asia General Manager Ian Geekie. "Siwon has done really, really well and I'm extremely impressed," he commented. Ryo summed up his feelings by saying, "This is a simply fantastic weekend for me. If there is any chance at all, I will come back again."

Korean racing fans will be treated to the spectacular sight of 16 of the pristine Porsche 911 GT3 Cup machines racing in anger tomorrow over two, 20- lap rounds on the Taebaek Circuit for the first time.

Supporting the series are two of the most recognised names in international motorsport, Mobil1 and Michelin. Mobil and Porsche have been partners since 1996. Close co-operation in research and development has to led to every new Porsche engine being filled with Mobil 1 high-performance lubricant. Porsche Carrera Cup Asia drivers also have the advantage of high technology tyres, supplied by series partner Michelin, that have consistently improved the performance of many teams in international motorsport. The partnership between Michelin and the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia has emerged from a worldwide agreement signed between Porsche AG and the Michelin group in 2001.

<pre> ROUND 8 QUALIFYING 1. 29 Charles KWAN (HKG) Team Infineon-Novellus 00:57.759 2. 8 Nigel ALBON (GBR) Naza Racing Team 00:58.104 3. 13 C. NATTAVUDE (THA) Fuspeed Racing 00:58.192 4. 77 Matthew MARSH (GBR) The Pizza Company 00:58.498 5. 18 Manit VRARUT (THA) Porsche Centre Bangkok/Red Bull 00:58.605 6. 55 Tommy LEE (MAL) Jaseri Racing 00:59.042 7. 99 Alex YAN (HKG) Alex Yan 00:59.344 8. 28 Max CHEN (TPE) A1 Racing Team 00:59.379 9. 88 Kenji KAWAGOE (JPN) Kenji Kawagoe 00:59.471 10. 22 SIU Tit Lung (HKG) Siu Tit Lung 00:59.816 11. 11 SIU Yuk Lung HKG) Siu Yuk Lung 00:59.831 12. 66 WANG Shuo-I (TPE) A1 Racing Team 00:59.971 13. 3 William HEINECKE (THA) The Pizza Company 01:00.113 14. 98 Patrick MA (HKG) Patrick MA 01:00.561 15. 21 RYU Siwon (KOR) Porsche Asia Pacific 01:01.034 16. 16 Graham JUPP (RSA) Porsche Asia Pacific 01:01.693

-mal-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Stunning performance from Ralf

Next article Bloomington results 2003-08-22

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Spy shots of 2027 NASCAR Ford Mustang testing at Charlotte, but what's different?

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

1 h

Spy shots of 2027 NASCAR Ford Mustang testing at Charlotte, but what's different?

Five key takeaways from F1's big African Grand Prix reveal in Rwanda

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 2 h

Five key takeaways from F1's big African Grand Prix reveal in Rwanda

Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign

Indy NXT

IndL Indy NXT 3 h

Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign

GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 4 h

GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts