Gustas Grinbergas together with Cody Ware, racing for Rick Ware Racing have won the first ever night race in Sepang F1 circuit. Not only did they win the race, but also won the LMP2 AM championship with one race still to go. This gives the team the Le Mans 24h entry.
15 minutes before the race a monsoon came, delaying the race start 100 minutes, part of the delay was due to the thunderstorm knocking out the race control cameras, without which the race would be unsafe to run. At 18:40 the engines were fired into life, to start the 4h of Sepang.
As the race gets underway Gustas’s teammate Cody gets a penalty after a mistake from another competitor creating a confusing situation, even after a drive-through Cody keeps the lead. Half hour into the race Cody stops for fuel and tyres, switching to slicks on a quickly drying track, but on his first lap out on track he makes a mistake and gets stuck in the grass. Once he got out of the grass, he immediately brought the car back to the pits. Gustas has to get ready unexpectedly and with the help of the mechanics gets into the car. On a drying track and quickly heading into darkness Gustas takes a few laps to get comfortable with the conditions. While the other teams pit Gustas gets into the lead, where he stays up and builds up a big lead. After almost 2 hours in the car for Gustas it’s time to change drivers and Cody gets back in, but the car has to go back into the garage for repairs, the illuminated number panel has stopped working, after a 30 minute repair the car goes back to the track. 10 laps behind and the only hope now is that the competitors have issues. And incredibly they do, a gearbox problem brings the leader at the time back to the pits.
As RWR crossed the finish line they became Asian Le Mans Series Champions. But the racing doesn’t stop, this weekend (February 21-23) the Asian Le Mans Series goes to Thailand for the final round of the championship.
Gustas Grinbergas is 16 years old Lithuanian racing driver. After long carrier in karting he started competing in European Le Mans Series in 2019. Last minute call to Asian Le Mans Series and two back to back wins in LMP2 AM class makes him most successful Lithuanian endurance racing driver.
Info & photo: Gustas Grinbergas Racing Info
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