Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia in Suzuka: Difficult weekend with happy end for Carrie Schreiner

On the traditional Formula 1 circuit in the Japanese Suzuka the 3^rd round of the Asian Lamborghini Super Trofeo Championships took place.

The circuit, which is approx. 5.8 km long, is “old school” without a lot of run-offs, some very fast courage-testing corners and it certainly belongs to the most difficult race tracks in the world. The Japanese organizer allowed the teams only two free practice sessions on Friday. Whereas the local drivers were able to do three complete testing days in Suzuka shortly before the race! This means unequal conditions, Carrie only had about 45 minutes to adapt to the very difficult race track. Thus, in the qualifying on Saturday morning nearly only Japanese pilots were on the top positions, among them also a former formula 1 driver. Thus position 11 for Carrie and P7 for her teammate Spike Goddard were as expected. To all misfortune, Goddard was put on the last position because of an alleged overtaking under the red flag and he had to start from the last position in race one.

Until the planned driver change, the Australien reached position 8. When Carrie had already entered the car, her FFF Lamborghini Squadra Corse Team noticed a heavy loss of water and they had to park the 620 hp race car because of safety reasons. Later on, in the box they analyzed that the water cooler had exploded.

Shortly before race 2 on Sunday morning it started to rain heavily and the 18-year old girl from the Saarland started her first race in a GT sports car in the rain. The female racer solved her task well and could keep her 11^th position until the driver change. At the end of her stint she was even faster than some of the drivers in front of her, but she didn’t want to do any risky overtaking manoeuvre. After the compulsory pit stop the experienced Spike Goddard started his fight and was successful. They finally could achieve the 6^th overall position, reached position 2 in the PRO/AM class and were on the podium.

Thus, Carrie Schreiner has left Japan with mixed feelings: „Even if everything didn’t go smoothly, it was a big experience to drive in Suzuka. I think there weren’t many female drivers from Europe who were allowed do that. The Japanese were very strong here due to her practice advantage. At least we had a feeling of success in the second race.”

From Japan Carrie flew directly to Singapore to her main sponsor T2 APAC. Before the next European race end of July in Spa there will be some testing days for the young GT driver in order to improve her ground speed.