With Darryl O’Young having taken the team’s first pole position in the reverse grid race earlier today, bamboo engineering are confident of strong results in tomorrow’s two World Touring Car Championship races.
Hong Kong driver O’Young spent much of the first part of qualifying hovering around the tenth place spot – vital for securing pole position for race two. When the end of the session finally came, after a red flag for Pepe Oriola’s accident which cost O’Young a set of tyres, the bamboo driver was well-placed to take pole position for the second race.
With pole position secured for race two, and O’Young guranteed to start no lower than tenth for race one, the team opted to give him minimal running in the second part of qualifying and he will start from ninth for the first race.
Meanwhile local driver Yukinori Taniguchi also had a strong session, taking his best qualifying result of the season with 12th for both races.
After the session Team Principal Richard Coleman was delighted with his two drivers performances.
“[I’m] very pleased with both drivers. [It was] by far our strongest qualifying this season. Both drivers did a great job. Darryl needed to save a set of tyres for the races tomorrow so he did little running in Q2. We’re sure he could have gone quicker but we need to be strong for the races.”
With O’Young currently fighting for the overall honours in the Yokohama Driver’s Trophy, where he is 5th and 20 points adrift of leader Kristian Poulsen, Coleman is hoping that Taniguchi’s strong showing in qualifying will lead to equally strong performances in the races to boost O’Young’s trophy chances.
“Yuke is also looking very strong here and we’re hoping that he can protect Darryl’s rear and take some points off the people who are ahead in the championship,” added Coleman.