Johor Prince Tunku Abu Bakar Sultan Ibrahim wins GT3 race despite finishing 14th, proving that to finish first, you must first finish
Dinesh · Jun 23, 2023 08:43 AM
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We’ve all heard the age-old adage in racing, “To finish first, you must first finish.” As it turns out, you’ll also need to obey all the rules as well. The addendum to that adage was proven by Johor Prince Tunku Abu Bakar Sultan Ibrahim’s recent victory at the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Race in Fuji Speedway as he ended up taking victory despite initially finishing 14th.
The extraordinary circumstances came about as every single car ahead of the prince were hit with penalties that ended up promoting the prince and his driving partner, German endurance racer Luca Stolz, to victory in the Triple Eight Johor Motorsports Racing (JMR) team in their Mercedes-AMG GT GT3 race car.
In the second race of the weekend, the provisional winners were the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of D’Station Racing piloted by Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fuji.
The avalanche of penalties stemmed from the third safety car period during the race. A crash on the main straight of Fuji Speedway prompted race control to issue instructions to the field to pass through the pitlane so as to avoid the crash and debris on the straight.
However, only 2 cars obeyed the instruction, one of which was Tunku Abu Bakar’s car. The rest of the field drove down the main straight and all 13 cars ahead of them earned 30-second penalties, thus promoting the prince and Stolz to the top of the podium.
Tunku Abu Bakar Sultan Ibrahim and Stolz at their first win of the season in Thailand. picture credit: Endurance-Info
Furthermore, the Aston Martin of Hoshino and Fuji were also slapped with an additional 10-second penalty for an overtake beyond track limits.
The only other car to heed race control’s instructions ended up finishing second once all the penalties were added.
This isn’t the prince’s first victory though. Back in May, the prince and Stolz took victory for their team at Race 1 of the championship at the Buriram International Circuit in Thailand.
It’s very much a family affair, albeit a royal one, for the prince as he’s joined in the championship by his brother Johor Prince Tunku Abdul Rahman Hassanal Jefri Sultan Ibrahim that races for the same team as well.
Lastly, Tunku Abu Bakar Sultan Ibrahim’s victory makes the prince only the third member of a royal family to claim a sports car win, alongside LMP2 driver Ferdinand Habsburg and WEC driver Abdulaziz al Faisal.
“Better late than never.” Some despise it, others begrudgingly agree with it but he swears by it… much to the chagrin of everyone around him. That unfortunately stems from all of his project cars not running most of the time, which in turn is testament to his questionable decision-making skills in life. A culmination of many wrongs fortunately making a right; much like his project cars on the rare occasions they run, he’s still trying to figure out if another project car is the way to go.
