Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia Thunders Down Under

2024 season resumes with Australian double-header

Fifteen teams resume their campaigns for the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia (LSTA) 2024 PRO, PRO-AM, AM and Lamborghini Cup titles this weekend as the impressive fleet of twenty Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 race cars arrive at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia.

Leading the charge into their closest round to a home race are New Zealand PRO duo of reigning champion Marco Giltrap and 18-year-old Clay Osborne who together top the class leaderboard after taking a clean-sweep of the points in Malaysia last month. The Absolute Racing pair followed up a pair of pole positions with two victories at the Sepang International Circuit making them the team to beat this season. In addition, Giltrap’s experience of The Bend will serve him well having taken the first-ever LSTA race win in Australia last season.

However, snapping at the heels of the quick Kiwis in Malaysia were the SJM Iron Lynx Theodore Racing line-up of Charles Leong Hon Chio, twice a Grand Prix winner on his home circuit of Macau, and former W Series driver, Japan’s Miki Koyama. Both made their series debuts in Malaysia and were immediately on the pace, taking two second-place finishes. A podium apiece for Arrows Racing’s Gavin Huang and Jonathan Cecotto - a race winner in Australia last year - and the DW Evens GT entry of Dan Wells and Emilien Carde, signals a fierce fight for PRO honours this season.

To add to the intriguing mix come Malaysian pair Jazeman Jaafar and Selim Rafique entered with Arrows Racing. Jafaar is a former junior single seater champion who has subsequently applied his formidable talent to LMP2 and sportscar competition with equally impressive results, including a fourth-place finish in the 2018/19 FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 class, just missing out on a podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2018.

Australia also sees the PRO-AM ranks swell for the two races on the 4.95km, 18-turn circuit. Class points leaders Cheng Fangping and André Couto of Madness Racing Team, and rivals DW Evans GT’s Thomas Yu Lee and Nikolas Pirttilahti in the Lamborghini Osaka car, are joined by Australians Adrian Deitz and Tony D’Alberto for D1 Racing.

Successful Chinese team Harmony Racing returns to LSTA in Australia with a PRO-AM line-up of Stanislav Minsky and China’s Liang Jiangtong, who contested two rounds last year to finish the season fourth in class. Following their LSTA weekend, the team will head to Europe where, for the first time ever, a round of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe will star on the support card for the legendary FIA World Endurance Championship 24 Hours of Le Mans from June 11-15.

Topping the AM ranks is SQDA-GRIT Motorsport’s Brian Lee in the Lamborghini Seoul car. Despite driving solo in the searing heat and suffocating humidity of Malaysia, Lee took an heroic pole position, podium and race two class victory to top the AM leaderboard heading into round two. Thai Newcomers Nattanid ‘Kat’ Leewattanavalagul and Dechathorn ‘Phu’ Phuakkarawut of YK Motorsports by Star Performance made a stunning LSTA debut with a race one win and runner-up finish in the final race of the Malaysian season-opener to put them just a single point behind Lee.

Just eight points separate the next five AM teams, led by Hong Shijie and He Xinyang of Madness Racing Team followed by TRUE VISIONS MOTORSPORTS THAILAND’s Suttiluck ‘Bobby’ Buncharoen who, like Lee, is driving solo this season. 610Racing by Absolute Chinese pair Li Xuanyu and Xie Wenjun are equal on points with Buncharoen, while Arrows Racing’s Johnson Huang will be without regular partner Vincent Tai in Australia so will be on the hunt for points solo. Korean team Vortex Racegraph’s Luo Haowen and Song Jiajun of China are three points adrift of Huang heading to Adelaide, and also head to the 24 Hours of Le Mans LSTE spectacular after Australia.

Joining LSTA for round two in the Lamborghini Cup category are local drivers Mark Pearce and JP Drake with JAM Motorsport. Drake has been dubbed ‘The Retail Racer’ as head of South Australia’s largest independent supermarket retailer, while Pearce owns and runs award-winning wine producer Kellermeister.

Pearce and Drake will lock horns with Lamborghini Cup points leaders Haziq and Hairie Oh at HZO Fortis Racing Team by Absolute Racing. The Malaysian brothers opened their 2024 LSTA account with a maximum points haul in Malaysia, taking two class wins from pole at Sepang. However, right on their bumper across the line each time was reigning Lamborghini Cup champion Supachai Weeraborwornpong for Siamgas Corse. Iron Lynx Malaysian driver Kumar Prabakaran had an unlucky start to his season, but immediately bounced back to take a podium finish in race two.

Round two marks the series second visit to The Bend Motorsport Park, located approximately 100km southeast of the South Australian capital Adelaide. Action gets underway on Friday, June 7, with two one-hour free practice sessions at 10:55 and 14:50 local time. The two, 15-minute qualifying sessions to set the grid for each of the two 50 minute-plus-leader races start at 09:50 on Saturday, with race one at 13:40. The second and final race of the weekend starts at 12:10 on Sunday (all times UTC+9.5).

Both LSTA races will be live-streamed via the Lamborghini Squadra Corse YouTube channel.

Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia 2024 Provisional Calendar