O'Young aims to live up to hype

Vancouver-born Chinese driver Darryl O'Young will be making his long-awaited Asian racing debut in one of the support races for this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur. And what a race it should be.

Hong Kong-based O'Young will be competing in front of a crowd of 100,000 spectators at the Sepang circuit in the Porsche Carrera 911 GT3 Cup in round one of the Porsche Infineon Carrera Cup Asia, the region's leading one-make sportscar series.

Touted as the 'next big thing' in Asian racing, O'Young, whose name is anglicised from Au Yeung, is confident he will make it a winning year for himself, even though he is little known in Asia.

O'Young, who is spearheading Team Jebsen's campaign in the Porsche series, is confident of winning the 11-round championship, which culminates on Macau Grand Prix weekend in November.

Having honed his racing skills in North America, the 23-year-old O'Young has moved to Hong Kong and is in the running - together with Tung Ho-pin - to become the first Chinese Formula One driver.

'I think it is definitely possible,' said O'Young when asked whether he could make the step up to Formula One a few years down the road.

'That's been my career goal since I was a child and I am still working towards that. This year, I have been given a really good opportunity to win the series and I definitely feel it's going to be a good year for me. I am really looking forward to this year and we'll see what the future holds,' he said.