B-Quik Racing Ready for Sepang 12 hours
B-Quik Racing is ready and raring to go for its second appearance at the Sepang 12 Hours which is scheduled to go to green lights the day after tomorrow (Saturday) at midday before coming to a conclusion when the surviving racecars take the checkered flag on the stroke of midnight.
With drivers Henk Kiks, Daniel Bilski and Peter Kox in the cockpit of the #26 B-Quik Racing Audi R8 LMS Cup it promises to be an exciting race as we chase another appearance on the ‘GTC’ class podium.
Today (Thursday) has seen morning and afternoon unofficial practice sessions and the action will wind up this evening with the two official practice sessions, the latter being exclusively in the night, offering our trio of drivers the opportunity to power into the darkness in preparation for the race, almost half of which will in fact be held in through the night.
This afternoon all three drivers took turns in the #26 Audi during the unofficial practice session, completing a combined total of 30 laps with a best time of 2:10.981, as the team started to set the car up for Sepang.
Last year saw our first appearance in the prestigious Sepang 12 Hours, then held in August, and we were on the GTC class pace all race, leading more than half the laps and battling back after several mechanical issues to finish in the runners up spot.
For this year’s edition we have tweaked the driver lineup and that means Henk and Daniel have returned to be joined by Dutch star Peter Kox. Henk has been driving our Audi R8 LMS Cup for a second year in Thailand Super Series and wrapped up the season with a podium at the Bangsaen Thailand Speed Festival at the end of last month. Daniel, who competed with B-Quik Racing for the first time at last year’s Sepang 12 Hours has quickly become our busiest driver this year, he’s also been racing in Thailand Super Series in our Porsche 997 GT3 Cup but has also taken responsibility for our first overseas championship foray, Audi’s pan-Asian ‘R8 Cup’ and the Australian sensationally won the hard fought Audi R8 Amateur Cup, delivering B-Quik Racing silverware in our first ever international series participation.
As well as these key programmes both Henk and Daniel have been racing the Asia Classic Car Challenge, the ten race series taking place exclusively at Sepang Circuit, so they’re up to scratch with the track. In fact they won a class title each in this series, as well as the overall championship, driving our classic Porsches, and split every race win between them, so the dots should be filled in.
Peter needs very little introduction; he’s one of the most experienced professional drivers of the last few decades and has won everything there is to win around the world. It turned out that Henk and Peter were classmates a long time ago and they bumped into each other a couple of years ago at this race, the connection was remade, they kept in touch and the pieces eventually dropped in place to get Peter, a previous winner of this race, into the #26 Audi for this year’s edition.
And the story of the week so far. The Audi took part in the 9th Bangsaen Thailand Speed Festival in Henk's hands just a week and a half ago. Following the conclusion of the third and final Super Car race of that event a week last Sunday afternoon the crew cleaned up the car and loaded it into a 40 ft shipping container that had been brought down to the paddock along with all the pit equipment plus further additional equipment trucked down from our raceshop in Bangsaen for loading. In the early hours of Monday morning everything set off for Laem Chabang port to be shipped to Malaysia.
The container cleared border customers on Tuesday and made the final leg of the journey to Sepang circuit a few hours later. The team, who were ready and waiting at the track, then went straight to work setting up the garage and preparing the car for the unofficial practice session which took place this afternoon, our crew working diligently round the clock to be ready.
Driver quotes (after FP2):
Henk J. Kiks: "It's really been from one event to the other without much time to think and the team has done a superb job to prepare the car through Bangsaen which this year meant it was competitive on track for six consecutive days and then to get it packed and on its way here and they have worked non stop to get ready for the practice sessions, they’re the real backbone of the team that we have built and it was very satisfying for a top driver like Peter to remark yesterday that he was impressed with how they operated. It's great to have Peter in the car with us and I think we have gelled quickly; we look forward to his input and expertise in terms of direction. We got on the podium at our first attempt last year and we now look forward to doing it again this time, everyone is up for this, were pushing hard and we want to end a very good season with out biggest date of the year and on a high note."
Daniel Bilski: “It’s day one of setup and testing and all the drivers are just getting into the rhythm and comfortable with the car again and despite winning the Audi Cup AM championship in a very similar car it always takes a little bit of time to get used to a new car. It’s great having Peter on board and I’m looking forward to his experience and advice. The team’s coming together nicely as always and I’m looking forward to a strong race and a great end to the year.”
Peter Kox: “I’m very happy to be back in Sepang for the third time and I have a good podium record here so I want to keep it intact. I’m really happy to drive for Henk who is an old school mate of mine so I would like to do a good job for him and have a good result in the race.”
