Dylan O’Keeffe has narrowly missed the podium in his Carrera Cup Asia debut, charging from ninth on the grid to fourth in Round 12 of the championship at Indonesia’s Mandalika circuit.
O’Keeffe’s weekend with the Toro Racing squad started on a positive note when he topped the opening practice session on Friday. However, some aerodynamic issues compromised his lap times in qualifying, leaving him eighth and ninth on the grid for Rounds 10 and 11.
“In qualifying, the car was bottoming out over kerbs and I lost my front splitter in both sessions, which took away most of my front downforce and meant I wasn’t able to maximise the car’s performance,” O’Keeffe said.
Nevertheless, O’Keeffe made up a place in the weekend’s first two races, finishing seventh in Round 10 and eighth in Round 11.
Grid positions for Round 12 – a longer, 45-minute race – were determined by combined results from qualifying, which saw O’Keeffe again starting ninth on the grid.
However, the longer race distance gave him more time to attack and he charged forward to fourth, battling for a podium position in the closing laps.
“Our issues in qualifying compromised our weekend, but I was glad we were able to show our true potential in Round 12,” he said.
“All weekend, one of the car’s strengths was that it was looking after its tyres really well, which came into play in the longer final race.
“It was uplifting to finish the weekend on a high and race wheel-to-wheel with the Carrera Cup Asia front-runners – the standard of competition is very high.
“The experience will definitely serve me well when I return to Carrera Cup Australia and get ready for a big second half of the season.”
O’Keeffe’s next event will be Round 5 of Carrera Cup Australia at The Bend Motorsport Park, 12-14 September.
Carrera Cup Asia Mandalika Results Summary
Qualifying 1: 8th
Qualifying 2: 9th
Round 10: 7th
Round 11: 8th
Round 12: 4th
