More to come from Andrew Tang after Supercup experience

SINGAPORE — He was competing in the most prestigious race of his fledgling career to date, but local driver Andrew Tang did not feel overawed as he lined up on the esteemed Hockenheim Circuit for the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup challenge on Sunday.

Instead, the 21-year-old was simply focused on the race ahead. Having been given the opportunity to compete in Porsche’s top one-make competition, Tang was determined to savour every bit of the experience and absorb as many lessons as he could.

Despite going up against a far more seasoned field of drivers, Tang still managed to give a positive account of himself as he finished a respectable 13th — out of 26 racers — in a time of 26 minutes 29.107secs, 16.530secs behind eventual winner Matteo Cairoli of Fach Auto Tech.

It was a heartening and gutsy performance from Tang, who was competing in just his fourth-ever Grand Touring (GT) car race.

But it was also characteristic of the sort of can-do attitude that the Porsche China Junior Team driver has displayed throughout his debut Porsche Carrera Cup Asia (PCCA) season this year, where he is currently third in the championship standings on 92 points with two wins under his belt.

And Tang, who is 16 points behind current leader Maxime Jousse of Kamlung Racing in the PCCA standings, claims his encouraging involvement in the Porsche Supercup has given him a timely boost in confidence as he seeks to challenge for the title in the final six rounds of the competition.

“The Porsche (Mobil 1) Supercup series is the best one-make series in the world so the level is extremely high,” Tang, who went straight to Italy for a three-day fitness camp after the race, told TODAY.

“The guys I was competing against have years of experience ... and I definitely learnt a lot this weekend from them and the race. The target here was to learn as much as possible and improve my drive, and I think I managed to do that. I picked up a few driving techniques to go quicker and my coach Earl (Bamber) also taught me a lot of tricks in the race that I can use in future.

“I will use all the experiences from this race and go to the next PCCA race stronger, both mentally and physically, and I’m looking forward to improving (my performances) for the second half of the season.”

Two-time PCCA champion Bamber, who coached Tang during the Supercup, revealed he was impressed with what he saw of the Singaporean in Germany, and tipped him for a bright future in the sport.

“It’s always very difficult to tell where a driver will go in the future, but Andrew has already showed an amazing amount of talent,” said Bamber, 26. “His results in the race and qualifying were impressive, and he displayed a lot of maturity and also has fantastic work ethic.

“With the sort of opportunities that Porsche China has provided with Tang, such as being able to compete in the Supercup, I think the possibilities for Tang are endless. If everything goes right, I’m sure you can see him in a factory car for Porsche one day, and I’ll be looking out for his progress over the next few years.”