Kings Racing’s Xu Jia and Jake Dennis took the top step of GT3 Class whereas D2’s Kuo Kuo Hsin and Max Ebenal, and JRM’s Li Chao and Chris van der Drift completed the podium. Bian Hao and Will Bamber of JRM took their third GTC victory of the season ahead of teammates Pan Chao and Andrew Tang, and championship leader D2’s CJ Huang. ChinaEquity AMR’s Yang Mengqiao showed incredible progress and took well-deserved GT4 P1 with teammate Ross Gunn. Roelof Bruins and David McIntyre extended their championship lead despite taking second. Sam Lok and Clement Li of Team Lotus took the final place on the podium.
GT3 Class
FAW T2M took the season's first front row lockout after a brilliant performance by current GT3 championship leaders Bao Jinlong and Martin Ragginger, and HubAuto founder Morris Chen and German driver Marco Seefried.
Sadly an incident at the start with Xu Jia of Kings Racing saw the two Porsches elimated only a few metres into the session. The race was red flagged. The restart took place under the Safety Car not too long before the driver change pit window. A long pit stop has consigned the #07 of Xu Jia and Jake Dennis to P4, but former F3 champion put in some stunning lap times and launched a half-hour long assault on his rivals. First came the #991 of Zhang Dasheng, and then the D2’s Maxx Ebenal 10 laps later. Sadly he ran out of time to attack teammate Estonian driver Martin Rump, who put on a commanding performance in his stint to cross the finish line first. Despite Rump’s valiant effort, a botched driver change strategy has resulted in a 60-second penalty for the #08 Audi, which robbed Kings Racing of its first 1-2 finish of the season.
Further in the back, Chris van der Drift in the Porsche 911 GT3 R worked hard to recover positions lost during pit stop. His lonely campaign finally bore fruit towards the closing laps of the race, when he passed teammate Zhang Dasheng to take third. He could not quite close in on the Mercedes AMG of Maxx Ebenal. The Canadian driver and his teammate Taiwanese born Kuo Kuo Hsin made significant improvement over the past rounds, and finally managed to spray the champagne on GT3 podium.
Like #08, the third Kings Racing of Xu and Yokomizo also took a 60-second penalty for coming up short of the mandatory pit stop time.
After applying penalty, the final finishing positions from fourth onwards are:
Li Jiaqi/Zhang Dasheng, JRM JiaRui – TengDa
Wang Liang/Martin Rump, Kings Racing
Xu Wei/Naoki Yokomizo, Kings Racing
DNF: Martin Ragginger/Bao Jinlong, FAW T2M
DNF: Morris Chen/Marco Seefried, FAW T2M
GTC Class
The battle for GTC podium only came to life in the second half of the race, as a result of the GT3 incident that essentially neutralised the first 25 minutes of the race. Solo driver CJ Huang of D2 started P2 behind JRM’s Pan Chao but came out ahead after a shorter pit stop. However, the GTC championship leader could not pull away from the charging rivals and was soon caught by the #777 Porsche of Andrew Tang. As the two fought hard for position, Will Bamber saw an opportunity to pass and went around the outside of Turn 1 to take the lead. Huang then suffered a left rear puncture into Turn 5 – a problem he has been struggling with throughout the weekend – then gone was his opportunity to go higher than P3.
Wang Tao and Shang Lei of JRM Force China, and Zheng Hui of JRM Elite finished in fourth and fifth.
GT4 Class
The start saw Yang Mengqiao of the #618 Aston Martin Vantage GT4 shooting from the back of the grid in the P3 after only two corners. The gentleman driver was in top form during yesterday’s qualifying, clocking the fastest lap in session two and was even quicker than some of the professional drivers. He then engaged in a battle with The Winning Team’s David McIntyre while Julio Acosta in the white Lotus Evora pulled away.
McIntyre managed to fend of the assault from Yang for a few laps but has been struggling to find grip, and finally let up his position on lap 3. Yang then locked onto his next target and began closing the gaps with front-runner Acosta before pitting in P2, leaving McIntyre battling the next challenge from the other Aston Martin of Zhou Yong.
After swapping out Yang, British GT champion Ross Gunn soon extended his lead while the rest of the field fought it out in the back. A charging Sennan Fielding in the #55 D2’s Ginetta G55 GT4 passed the #28 Lotus of Anthony Chan. The latter tried to fight back position but unfortunately spun and was left beached in the gravel traps outside Turn 9. Safety Car was swiftly called out and this played into the hands of Fielding and Bruins, who were able to close a mighty 40-second odd gap with front-runner Gunn. The restart saw Bruins and Fielding passing Dewey Lin in quick succession and the pair was locked into a battle for P2 towards the closing laps. Fielding briefly passed the McLaren out of the final chicane but Bruins fought back his position till the chequered flag was shown. Gunn, not fazed by the charging rivals, clocked the race’s overall fastest lap and took home the pair’s first victory of the season – deservedly so.
Unfortunately for #55 Ginetta of D2 Racing, they suffered a 30-second penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit which resulted in a drop of positions into P5. This penalty enabled the #36 Lotus of Sam Lok and Clement Li to take the final place on the podium.
From fourth to seventh are (after applying penalty):
Dewey Lin/Zhou Yong, ChinaEquity AMR
Sennan Fielding/Kenny Chung, D2 Racing
Zhang Dongqi/Yin Jinge, ZIA FEA Racing
Billy Lo/Chen Yinian, Xtreme Motorsports
Rodolfo Avila and Sheng Yanwen made several stops into the pit due to an electrical problem before eventually retiring from the race. Eric Wong of Team Lotus failed to make a start.
Aston Martin GT4 Challenge
1st: Yang Mengqiao/Ross Gunn, ChinaEquity AMR
2nd: Zhou Yong/Dewey Lin, ChinaEquity AMR
3rd: Zhang Dongqi/Yin Jinge, ZIA FEA Racing
