HIGHLY REGARDED The Porsche Carrera Cup Asia has been called Asia’s premier sportscar racing series

PCCA Calendar

Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car Specs

By Derryn Wong

IT HAS BEEN called Asia’s premier sportscar racing series and this is a claim that’s not just unsubstantiated PR-guff either. The main elements of any exciting series are of course the vehicles, the teams/drivers and the circuits – all of which the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia (PCCA) has.

Now enjoying its seventh iteration since beginning in 2003, the PCCA is a regional version of Porsche’s worldwide one-make race series which also runs in Germany, France, Italy and Japan, amongst other places.

In 2009 the PCCA will run seven rounds at circuits all around Asia, including Sepang, and Sentul (Indonesia). The biggest surprise? China hosts three rounds of the championship, twice at Shanghai and once at Zhuhai – reflecting its status as one of the most important markets for Porsche in Asia. It sold more than 7,000 cars there last year.

As with 2008, one of the major highlights is when the Cup comes to Singapore’s Marina Bay Circuit as support race for the Formula One Grand Prix.

PCCA is divided into two categories, A and B, the first for professional drivers and the second for paid drives. Personnel we spoke to said it takes at least half a million dollars to compete in every round of the championship. The PCCA is an ‘arrive and drive’ series, which means repairs and logistics are identical for everyone, making a level playing field.

While there’s been a huge cut in motorsports competition globally because of the economic crunch, the PCCA has done well to retain most of its drivers and teams for 2009. It’s not unaffected though, as some Category B drivers will only compete in certain rounds of the championship.

Category A will see 2008’s champion Darryl O’Young fending off 2007 champ Tim Sugden and 2008 runner-up Christian Menzel. Also competing is Singapore’s own Ringo Chong with Team Kangshun of Wuhan. The Class B battle meanwhile, looks to like a toss-up between Singapore’s Melvin Choo, with Yuey Yuhian Tan (also of Singapore) and Philip Ma from Hong Kong.

Mr. Christer Ekberg, managing director for Porsche Asia Pacific, said Porsche achieved a sales volume (excluding China) ten times higher than that of the year 2000, and once recovery is in swing, Porsche “… will be moving towards 2,500 to 3,000 cars per year.”

The Car

AS PART OF our coverage for the event, we got to experience a lap of Sepang North with Porsche factory driver Martin Ragginger who, as far as drivers go, knows the 911 GT3 Cup car like the back of his hand.

Needless to say the experience was amazing – the sound and fury is almost impossible to imagine unless you’ve actually been in a racing car before, with the growl of the flat-six engine drowning out everything except the feeling that perhaps you’re going a little too fast and wouldn’t it be a good idea to slow down Martin? After which you pick your face up from the dashboard due to the enormous braking forces.

And then you get out of the car and they tell you it’s actually the car from the season before last, a 996 model, running on old tyres too.