Bartholomew Crowned Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia Vice Champion

The final round of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Championship Asia took place at the Autodromo Vallelungain Italy on the 15thand 16thNovember.

Having never driven on the circuit which is situated 20 miles north of Rome, Jack had practised in the simulator in preparation for the races before arriving Wednesday afternoon prior to free practice. Free practice and qualifying took place on Thursday with two races on Friday.

After struggling with car set up in the two 40-minute practice sessions, team mate James Pull was first to qualify managing P3 for race 1 with Jack qualifying in P5 on slightly older tyres for race 2.

At the start of the fifty-minute race, James jumped into second and hung on to that position until the pit window opened on lap 17 for the mandatory driver change. With Jack now in the car, on exiting the pits he was passed by the #202 car thus demoting him to third. He was soon on the bumper of the second position car and a nose to tail battle ensued with Jack piling on the pressure as the laps clicked down. With three minutes of the race remaining, the 2ndplace car was pressured into a mistake by Jack and went wide on to the kerb damaging the driveshaft and forcing the driver to retire leaving Jack to cross the line in second place, 25 seconds ahead of the third place car.

For race two it was Jack starting the race in P5. As the cars crossed the line for the rolling start Jack was three abreast, rubbing mirrors with cars either side but still managing to squeeze into 4thplace. With only seven minutes of the race complete, the safety car was deployed to retrieve a damaged car stranded on track. At the restart, Jack’s car developed an intermittent electrical problem and with 3 minutes to go until the pit window opened he dropped to 5th. Pitting on lap 14, Jack handed over to team mate James and a quick pitstop elevated the British pairing into 3rd. Unable to make up the gap to the leaders, James hung on to the position giving them enough points to secure second place in the championship.

Jack Bartholomew

“It’s been a fantastic season especially clinching the UAE championship at the beginning of the year and now 2ndin the Asia Championship. I want to thank the team (FFF racing) for giving me a great car all season and Lamborghini and my sponsors for their continued support. I will now take a short break before I start to prepare for next season and I hope to reveal my plans for 2019 very soon”.