Fabian Schiller’s Asian tour couldn’t have started any better. At the four-hour-race on the Fuji International Speedway, the 19-year-old driver from Troisdorf was able to successfully stand up to the entire competition along with his two team mates at the LMP2 class and achieved the overall lead in his stint, which the Oreca-Judd of the Race Performance team then didn’t let go until crossing the finish line.

Last season, Fabian already won the Renault Sport Trophy in his premiere year. Now the driver born in Bonn used the chance to gather more experiences in the sports car scene during the winter and thereby get closer to his big goal: starting at the 24 hours of Le Mans. With the support of his former Marc VDS team leader and patron Marc van der Straaten he was able to get a place in the successful Swiss team Race Performance and to start at the races of the Asian Le Mans Series in December and January.

During qualifying for the „4 hours of Fuji“ on Saturday, which determined the starting positions, the opponents initially were one step ahead. The Algarve Pro Racing Team drove round the 4,563km long former Formula 1 track at the base of Mount Fuji in their closed Ligier-Nissan in only 1:32,646 minutes, while Race Performance in their open prototype came in at 1:33,089 minutes. The Swiss around team leader Urs Meyer weren’t impressed by this though because they knew that the Oreca-LMP2-sports car would be competitive over the distance with its first-class driver line-up.

On Sunday, the Race Performance trio started into the long distance race from third position but was able to drive forward to second place during the first few meters already. The further forward thrust was then stopped after just one lap due to a collision in midfield which caused a safety car phase of about 20 minutes. There was a further interruption but when the 25 remaining cars were able to speed up freely again the starting driver of the team always kept close to the leading drivers and passed on the sports car with start number 8 at the first pit stop with just a few seconds backlog to Fabian Schiller.

The young Rhinelander then showed his entire talent, put pressure on the Ligier-Nissan in front of him immediately and achieved the leading position due to a skilled overtaking maneuver. After that the road ahead was clear for Schiller. He drove one fast lap after another and achieved a lead of more than 35 seconds until the second pit stop. Finishing driver Struan Moore from Great Britain enhanced this lead during the last stint and thereby the team Race Performance finally crossed the finish line as the competent winner with more than one lap advance.

“It’s absolutely fantastic to achieve a victory at my first race as a newcomer in the Asian Le Mans Series”, rejoiced Fabian Schiller after crossing the finish line. “My team mate achieved a good starting position for us due to his great start, even though the race wasn’t that interesting for him afterward due to the safety car phases. I was able to fully attack during the second stint then, to overtake the leading driver and even achieve a quite comfortable lead on the pursuers. The car was matched perfectly to the race. I felt really comfortable and therefore was able to drive fast lap times throughout the entire distance. Struan did well during the last third as well and secured our victory. I’d like to tthank my team who did error-free jobs. I think Race Performance and our driver’s trio have really earned this result.”

Text: F. Wagner / Schiller Motorsport – Photos: Asian Le Mans Series / 9tro-Media