Meet mighty O'Young

Darryl O'Young can be forgiven for not celebrating St Patrick's Day this week, for the racer with the anglicised surname is pure Chinese and proud of the fact that he will be lining up against the cream of Asia's top drivers today.

The stakes are high for the 23-year-old Vancouver-born driver, who will be hoping to make a name for himself in his Porsche Carrera 911 GT3 Cup car in round one of the Porsche Infineon Carrera Cup Asia.

His much-awaited Asian debut could not be more auspicious either, as O'Young will be competing in front of 100,000 spectators at the Sepang international circuit in Kuala Lumpur in one of the support races for the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix.

The challenges look daunting for 23-year-old O'Young, who will not only be making the transition from competing in Formula racing to sports cars, but he faces the likes of such seasoned campaigners as defending champion Charles Kwan of Hong Kong, one of Asia's most successful racing drivers, and 2003 title contender Charoensukhawatana Nattavude of Thailand. Kwan captured third position on the grid for today's race, immediately behind Hong Kong's Matthew Marsh, with O'Young in seventh place.

With the backing of Team Jebsen combining with his talent and desire he should soon be on the front of the grid.

'I'm definitely looking forward to it. I haven't raced in front of that big of a crowd before. But really when you're racing, you're so focused with what you're doing, you don't really notice the fans in the stands, especially when you're going 230 kilometres an hour,' said O'Young.