Hillsborough racer Lyons signs for the GT Asia series for second season

Hillsborough racing star Richard Lyons has signed for a second season with Hong Kong based Craft Bamboo Racing for the 2016 GT Asia series.
Richard Lyons (Pro) and Frank Yu (Am) at the launch of Craft Bamboo 2016.Richard Lyons (Pro) and Frank Yu (Am) at the launch of Craft Bamboo 2016.
Richard Lyons (Pro) and Frank Yu (Am) at the launch of Craft Bamboo 2016.

After a tough and hard fought season in 2015 with Craft Bamboo Racing, Lyons and partner Yu are out for blood this coming season.

Craft Bamboo Racing have a change of technical partner for 2016, they will be welcoming Porsche into the fold.

Porsche’s 911 GT3 RS will be Craft Bamboo’s weapon of choice for GT Asia. The 911 is an excellent piece of engineering and a formidable machine on track, with its 4 litre, flat-6 naturally aspirated engine pumping out 500 + horses on its way to smashing 200mph.

GT Asia’s campaign is set to be played out over four countries, twelve rounds, six world class circuits and in the most challenging of conditions.

The tracks on the 2016 campaign trail include China’s Shanghai international F1 circuit and the world famous Fuji international Speedway in Japan.

Richard Lyons said; “It’s fantastic to be joining Craft Bamboo Racing for my second full time season in the ever growing GT Asia Championship.

“This will be a big year for us, with changing to the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

“I’ve already completed some laps in Europe in the new car and it promises to be really strong. It’s also great to be in a team that has one of the strongest engineering bases which will be critical having to learn the new 911.

“We have high expectations going into the season but we have to keep our feet on the ground to see what the competition brings.

“In any case we’ll be coming out of the box and raring to go flat out.”

Local racer Lyons started in Formula Vauxhall Junior in Britain winning the Winter Series in 1996, before finishing the regular championship sixth in 1997 and second in 1998. He then moved to Formula Palmer Audi, finishing second in the 1999 Championship.

He drove Formula Nippon in Japan from 2001 to 2005 winning the Championship in 2004 and finishing third in 2005.

He drove GT and Sports Cars in Japan for nine years between 2002 and 2010.

His best finish was in 2004 where he won the All-Japan GT Championship GT500 Championship.

Lyons also made occasional appearances in V8 Supercar, with a best finish of fifth place sharing a Triple Eight Race Engineering Ford Falcon, in the 2007 Bathurst 1000, sharing the car with Australian based Danish GT racer Allan Simonsen.

He returned in 2011 and drove for Tekno Autosports sharing with Jonathon Webb at Phillip Island and Bathurst.

Then he joined Ford Performance Racing to replace an injured Will Power at the 2011 Gold Coast 600, finishing the two races Third and First with Mark Winterbottom.