SINGAPORE — This weekend’s Porsche Carrera Cup Asia (PCCA) race may be held on his home turf in Singapore, but Andrew Tang was still apprehensive when he took to the Marina Bay Street Circuit for the one-make sports car series’ practice session yesterday.

After all, it was the first time that the 21-year-old was racing on a street track and at the notoriously challenging 23-turn Marina Bay circuit.

But Tang need not have worried. In fact, if his performance at practice was anything go by, the Porsche China Junior driver will likely find himself among the frontrunners for a spot on the podium during the actual race tomorrow.

The Singaporean racer seemed right at home at Marina Bay as he posted the third-best time of 2min 20.977s during yesterday’s session, which was just 2.201s slower than the fastest driver on the night, Nico Menzel of PICC Team StarChase.

Kamlung Racing’s Maxime Jousse, who currently leads the drivers’ standings, posted the second-fastest time of 2min 19.692s.

Despite his encouraging maiden outing on the Marina Bay circuit, Tang said there is still much room for improvement. “My team and I were happy with the start but we can do better,” Tang told TODAY. “We had a talk before the race and we all knew it was my first time, so we kept the expectations off. I just went with the flow and used all that I learnt from my years of racing and thankfully it turned out pretty well.

“But there’s still much work to be done. It was a good experience for me, and I’m sure that I’ll perform even better during qualifying tomorrow and during the race on Sunday.”

When asked if he was happy at posting the third-fastest time, Tang’s reply was emphatic: “No, because we came here to win.”

Results aside, Tang was delighted with the experience of racing on the Marina Bay circuit, although he admitted that he found the track and conditions challenging. “The atmosphere here was amazing, as expected, and it was a really good experience to be racing on home soil,” said Tang. “We all knew heat would be a factor here, and it was extremely hot in the car.

“As this is a street track, you don’t have much run-off between the walls and the track, so any mistake you make will be punished. It was a big challenge learning to drive close to the walls and the track was quite bumpy as well.”

Tang has been enjoying a stellar debut season in the PCCA and currently finds himself third in the drivers’ championship on 132 points, just six off leader Jousse, with four more races to go this season. NOAH TAN

XREF: Three Singaporean drivers to watch this F1 weekend PG 33