Driving with new tires, Pena negotiated the 4.3-kilometer Zhuhai Circuit in 1 minute, 36.527 seconds that stood as the best for the day until Irishman Ali Jackson of Aran Racing, driving for an extra lap, returned to the pit faster by two-tenths of a second.
This failed to dishearten Pena, however.
"I feel confident. I know it’s not going to be given to me on a silver platter. At the end of the day, you ‘re going to have to work for it. If everything goes smoothly, I think it should be me and Tyson in the front row (tomorrow)," said Pena, 18, lead driver of Team Goddard who is running fifth in the driver’s standing with 22 points.
"We got a pretty good chance. Dado’s been always in the pace or near the pace, so it’s going to be interesting," said team Goddard principal Mark Goddard.
Sy, who swept the first three rounds in Batangas last month, came up with the fourth best practice run Friday, behind Indon Moreno Soeprapto of Aran Racing, but like Pena was confident he could put it all together in the race for pole position Saturday.
"We still couldn’t find the best set-up for the car, unlike in Batangas when everything went right. But I’m confident our crew would come up with something right tomorrow. I’m still hoping me and Dado would be in the front," said Sy, 18, one of three Speedtech drivers in the field, the others being lady driver Gaby dela Merced and the comebacking Roland Hermoso.
Jackson, a newcomer in the series along with Briton Dillon Battistini, who submitted the fifth best time Friday, clocked 1:36.316, while Soeprapto, taking over from Irishman John O’Hara at Aran Racing, timed 1:36.555, the third best time in the event backed by Yokohama and pldtmypad.
Race enthusiasts can log on to www.asianf3.net and www.mypad.net for regular updates on the races. Battistini, who surprised many when he came up with two runner-up finishes in Batangas last month despite driving at the Batangas Racing Circuit for the first time, clocked 1:37.285, fifth best, while Satrio Hermando of R&W Team Indonesia, also a newcomer in the series, was sixth best in 1:38.226.
In all, 13 drivers will contest pole position Saturday, among them James Winslow of Britain, Jackson’s Aran Racing teammate who just couldn’t find the right rhythm and struggled for the second straight day of practice runs.
"We’re struggling, we don’t know why. We’ve made adjustments but cannot seem to find the right set-up.
It was the same story in Batangas," said Winslow, who edged Sy for third place overall last year. He iscurrently running third in this year’s standings with 32 points, just a point behind Battistini.
The field includes Loumeng Chao of Macau who is competing in the promotions class for cars with chassis built in 2000 and below along with Hermanto and Dela Merced. Two other drivers supposed to make their debuts here-Henri Karjalainen of Finland and
Matt Shawyer of Britain failed to show up.
"I really like to race. I hope to do good in the production race," said Chao, 26, who broke into Formula Renault racing in 2003. He was spotted by Goddard last year during the Macau Grand Prix driving in the Formula Renault race.