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15th October, 2017 – Blancpain GT Series Asia, Zhejiang
Nineteen year old Christopher Dreyspring put in a remarkable performance at Zhejiang to claim pole at Zhejiang in his GT3 debut. Racing alongside Sandy Stuvik the pair rounded out the season with 5th overall in Sunday's race and another Silver Cup podium.
Sandy Stuvik was joined by GT3 debutant nineteen-year old Christopher Dreyspring for the final Blancpain GT Series Asia race at Zhejiang, China this weekend. With Saturday and Sunday reserved for racing a packed Friday programme saw two sessions of free practice followed by qualifying. Neither VSR driver knew the Zhejiang circuit and Dreyspring had to also quickly get to grips with the team’s Lamborghini GT3. VSR sneaked into the top ten at the end of the second session and Dreyspring was quick to take charge of the first qualifying session. With ten minutes left to go the German leapt to the top of the timesheets and was never beaten. He improved his lap a further three times, shaving another 1.6 seconds off the pole to beat the rest of the field by nearly half a second – a remarkable performance.
His speed forced the organisers to move the VSR pairing from Pro-Am to Silver Cup resulting in an additional weight handicap for the team. Heavy rain on Saturday morning meant that the race started behind the safety car. When racing resumed Dreyspring held on to the lead but a second safety car intervention for a crashed Ferrari delayed further action for another ten minutes. At the restart Dreyspring attempted to make a break but was soon under pressure from Read, Patel and Abbott. Two laps later Patel found a way past the VSR car and Read took advantage to slip through as well. Dreyspring then passed the rest of his stint defending from Abbott’s Mercedes. When the pit window opened Dreyspring came in immediately to handover to Stuvik but a technical delay in the driver change left the VSR car well down the order. Stuvik nevertheless pushed hard and took the chequered flag in tenth place, sixth in Silver Cup.
Stuvik took the VSR Lamborghini out in Q2 and secured a place on the fifth row for the final race of the season. The weather was even worse for Sunday’s race which once again started behind the safety car. Stuvik, always at home in wet weather, was quickly up to eighth overall, sandwiched between Szymkowiak and Di Folco. While he harried the Mercedes he was able to pull away from the Lamborghini which was later passed by Heimgartner on a charge through the field. On lap nine he overtook Stuvik and the pair re-joined the battle for fifth place just a few seconds further up the road. Dreyspring took the VSR Lamborghini over as soon as the pit window opened and the team’s strategy allowed him to get ahead of Szymkowiak and Cheng. On lap nineteen Dreyspring overtook Au for 6th and three laps later wrested 5th from Lee. The German carried on pushing and had closed the gap to the battle for the final podium place to just over four seconds when the chequered flag fell. Fifth overall, the VSR pairing also took third in the Silver Cup class.
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