The grand finale of the tenth Porsche Carrera Cup season will have added star power with the announcement that Le Mans 24 Hours winner David Brabham will be amongst the 28-car grid as the championship battle goes down to the wire at the inaugural Shanghai Sportscar Champions Festival.
Son of three-time Formula 1 World Champion, Sir Jack Brabham, David Brabham will contest the two, 12-lap races in the Team Carrera Cup Asia Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
The stellar career of British-born Australian David Brabham began in 1983 in karts, with a British Formula 3 Championship title and victory at the Macau Grand Prix following in 1989. Twenty-four Formula 1 race starts were followed by the beginning of his current successful sportscar career, with an All-Japan GT Championship title in 1996. He is a two-time American Le Mans Series champion (in the P1 and LMP Classes), and is one of only four Australians to have won the Le Mans 24 Hours, winning the blue riband race outright in 2009, and two more class wins so far in 2007 and 2008.
Overall Leader Alexandre IMPERATORI
While Brabham makes his Porsche Carrera Cup Asia debut, the chase for the 2012 Overall and Class B Championship titles will reach its highly-anticipated climax. PICC Team StarChase driver Alexandre Imperatori is excruciatingly close to clinching the overall title, with a forty-point advantage over defending champion Keita Sawa of LKM Racing Team. The 25-year-old Shanghai-based Swiss driver will be hoping to wrap up the championship by taking pole position for Round ten, as the single point would earn him an unassailable lead.
However, Sawa can be relied upon to do everything humanly possible to keep his championship hopes alive, and with the highly-competitive field all wanting to make their mark on the season finale, anything can happen.
Third overall and out for race wins is Team Eagle — Jiejun & Junbaojie driver Martin Ragginger of Austria, while Team Jebsen's Rodolfo Avila and Budweiser Team StarChase ace and highest-placed Chinese driver Tung Ho-Pin will also want a strong finish to their seasons.
Round 9 Race Start
In Class B, it will be a three-way battle for honours between points leader, Modena Motorsports' Wayne Shen of Hong Kong, Seminole Racing Team's Egidio Perfetti, and OpenRoad Racing's Francis Tjia. Shen is the only one of the three to have finished all races so far, but Perfetti has the most victories with four wins.
The Shanghai Sportscar Champions Festival will mark a decade of racing for the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia. Having burst onto the Asian motorsport scene at the start of 2003, the series immediately set a new benchmark of excellence in the region. The inclusion of Brabham amongst the most talented and experienced field of sportscar racers ever assembled in Asia, guarantees a season-closer like no other.