Last to first victory for Chen Jun San

Already crowned 2011 Asian Touring Car Series champion Chen Jun San put on a terrific drive at Sentul for Round 9 of the series, coming from last place to take the win in his Team AAI-Buddy Club Honda Civic.

After 10 of 15 laps, the Taiwanese driver was up to second behind Team IMPS’s Hideharu Kuroki, and eventually passed the Japanese driver’s Honda Integra with two laps to go.

“Wonderful. It’s great. I am so happy” said Chen.

“From the start, overtaking was smooth. I was careful when passing the cars, safety first to make sure I didn’t do any dangerous moves. Then finally I caught up to Kuroki. He is really fast. I just tried to catch up to him bit by bit at every lap. He is a good technical driver. Finally in the last five laps, I pushed to the limit and got closer to him and had a hard fight with him. It was a lot of fun.”

“I then found an opening and got a chance to overtake him on the last two laps,” said Chen.

Chen had missed qualifying due to the late arrival of the team’s new engine, which arrived last night with his team working overnight to install it.

Kuroki finished second and Kenneth Lau, who had started from pole position, recovered to third despite an off into the gravel which dropped him to seventh.

Round 10 and the final round of the championship takes place later today.