At the finale of the Asian Le Mans Series, Fabian Schiller and his team mates gave their all once more but just barely missed the possible victory in the end. The second place at the four-hour-race on the Grand Prix track in Sepang can be counted as a huge success though too, because despite some technical difficulties the Oreca-Judd of the team Race Performance was only 105 seconds behind the leading driver when crossing the finish line. His Asia tour that led him first to Japan then to Thailand and Malaysia was an important experience for the driver from Troisdorf and is possibly going to pave the way for becoming a professional race driver in a factory team.

The son of the former Le Mans-team leader Hardy Schiller had travelled from Buriram to Kuala Lumpur with big ambitions and wanted to draw attention to him once more with a good result at the last race of the season of the Asian sports car series. The team Race Performance under the direction of Swiss Urs Meyer had used the two-week-break in between races to check the open LMP2-protoype thoroughly once more. It was especially important to find the right chassis frame calibration for the 5.542km long Sepang International Curcuit with its challenging combination of long, fast straight passages and narrow bends.

The mechanics achieved this really well during free trainings: With a lap time of 1:56,224 minutes the team ended up at the front of the field of participants consisting of 25 drivers after the session. Shortly before the beginning of qualifying the weather conditions around the track changed though. In addition to the subtropical climate with extremely high humidity it started to drizzle so that the racing engineers had to adjust the vehicle according to the new conditions one more time. This step generally led into the right direction but even though Schiller and his team mates increased their performances during qualifying and gained almost another second, the competition was a little faster and threw the fast car of the Swiss back to third starting position.

All participants started into the race without any problems but there was a small collision of the Oreca-Judd with a leading Ligier at the braking for the first bend already. Thereby, the front of the Race Performance’s vehicle got slightly damaged at the front left, which affected the aerodynamics very badly. Fabian Schiller had to feel this the most strongly when he replaced the starting driver for a double stint. “This time I experienced almost all the problems that you can have during a race”, the driver born in Bonn explained. “During the crash at the first bend we lost parts of the front spoiler and didn’t get enough contact pressure on the front axle anymore. This in turn led to higher tire wear as well as extreme understeering especially in the faster bends and cost me a lot of time during each lap. Later there was also a problem with the gear shift which was either due to the gearbox or the clutch.”

Despite all difficulties the team managed to stay close to the front drivers throughout the entire race. The result of the final race was completely open until shortly before the end of the race but during the last ten minutes the winning driver managed to drive far enough away from his opponents due to a series of fast laps and Schiller and his combatants had to be content with second place. After a little more than four hours the Race Performance’s Oreca-Judd crossed the finish line only 1:45,896 minutes after the leading driver.

“I had to tackle some extraordinary challenges with the car today but our team has done a fantastic job and solved all problems as fast and well as possible”, said the 19-year-old driver afterwards. “Our strategy was awesome and we were able to achieve second place due to a great overtaking maneuver. Under these conditions we achieved the maximum and I’m very happy about it. It’s been a great winter season for me; I’ve learned a lot and was able to gain lots of experiences in sports car races. I’m especially going to remember my grand victory at Mount Fuji at my very first race in the Asian Le Mans Series!”

Text: F. Wagner / Schiller Motorsport – Photos: Team Race Performance / COM-MEDIA