KINGS claims GT3 victory in Zhejiang and Xtreme Motorsports scorches a win in the error-strewn GTC race; GT4 reigning champion Winning Team snatches long-awaited victory

Chris van der Drift and Li Chao briefly celebrated their 2018 maiden victory before a post-race penalty put them behind KINGS Racing’s Mitch Gilbert and Xu Jia. David Chen and Michael Choy completed the GT3 podium.

Xtreme Motorsport’s Dominic Ang and Song Bo edged R+ Racing’s Wang Tao/Daniel Lu, and Championship leader CJ Huang to claim GTC win. 

Winning Team’s David McIntyre and Charlie Fagg headed a McLaren 1-3 ahead of teammates Benjamin Rouget and Dong Liang. Xtreme Motorsports’ Thomas Ashton and Shi Liang finished in P2. 

GT3 Class

Pole-sitter Xu Jia was pushed wide during the start and plummeted down the order. Li Chao saw a gap and nipped through for the lead ahead of the TSRTs of Michael Choy and Billy Lo. 

It didn’t take long for the 2017 reigning champion to carve his way through the field to take back the lead. By lap 4 he already came hot on the heels of Li’s Porsche, who had lost some time defending against a charging Billy Lo. In one sweeping move the Shanghai driver passed the leading #911 and began to build a lead.

Just before pit window, the Safety Car came out to recover Wang Liang’s damaged #8 Audi on turn 3. This bunched the cars up and entire field streamed into the pit for driver change soon after. 

Xu Jia was first to head into the pit, but his co-driver Mitch Gilbert came out behind Kuo Kuo Hsin, Li Jiaqi, and David Chen in fourth due to a longer stoppage time. Li Chao’s #911 had equally long times and teammate Chris van der Drift left the pit just behind the Australian’s #1 Audi.

The Safety Car restart produced another spectacle. The gentlemen drivers in the #2 AMG and #991 Porsche were quickly overhauled by the fast-running Chen, van der Drift and Gilbert, who then went on a multi-lap battle for P1 with less than half a second between them. Finally on lap 32, the New Zealander saw a gap at the tight hairpin of turn 13 and squeezed past the struggling TSRT Audi. Mitch Gilbert followed suit several corners later and knocked another position off Chen at the end of the start finish straight. 

Kuo Kuo Hsin benefited from an incident involving the #8 KINGS, #666 TSRT and #888 TSRT on lap 9, and managed to haul himself from the fifth row up to P2. He was briefly in the running for a win during the Safety Car period but did not have enough pace to hold off the more experienced drivers behind. He finished outside the overall podium position but was crowned winner of the Am/Am category. Max Wiser and Billy Lo finished fifth.

Min Heng showed impressive pace in the beginning stint, and briefly traded blows with teammate Li Chao in a fight for P3. Unfortunately the #991 was forced to retire three laps before the chequered flag after a turn 8 spin. 

JRM’s Li Chao and Chris van der Drift’s first taste of 2018 victory of short-lived as a post-race time penalty set the duo back one place behind old rivals Xu Jia. The same 22-second penalty also applied to #2, #991 and #888 for overtaking under Safety Car. 

GTC Class

CJ Huang dominated the first half of the session while Wang Tao and Song Bo duked it out in the back. Wang in the #307 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup passed the blue and orange Radical on turn 1 before the lap 14 Safety Car, but lost that position during pit stop.

17-year-old Porsche China Junior Daniel Lu pushed hard after the restart and dispatched Dominic Ang and CJ Huang, both of whom made mistakes at different point during the race. However, the youngster only led the GTC field for several laps before locking up at turn 14, allowing the Malaysian to re-pass and take the chequered flag. CJ Huang struggled with brake issues and tyre wear in the second stint and spun on turn 10. He was demoted to third.

Pan Chao and Shang Lei of R+ Racing finished fourth. 

GT4 Class

Fist Team AAI’s Kevin Chen made an excellent start, taking the inside of turn 1 to snatch the lead. Benjamin Rouget weaved through the field left and right from P6, and came right on the tail of teammate David McIntyre in just a few corners. The McLaren duo then overtook the second place Ginetta in quick succession, and began an intra-team battle that lasted several laps. 

Ultimately the Briton relinquished his position to Rouget, who managed to overhaul the hard-defending BWM from the inside of the turn 13 hairpin, despite picking up damage on his front left. The second Winning Team entry of #570 also passed Chen four laps later, and repeated Saturday’s feat to take a dominant McLaren 1-2 in the first half of the session. It almost looked as if the team’s hopes were to dash again in cruel fashion when the Safety Car was called to recover the #28 Lotus. McIntyre came under pressure from the Taiwanese driver during the restart, but held his nerve and defended his second place.  

The #570 did not waste a single second during their pit stop change, and exited the pit in the lead ahead of a blisteringly quick KTM. In clean air, McIntyre’s teammate Charlie Fagg and Xtreme Motorsports’ Shi Liang consistently scored in the 1:34s, lapping around 2 seconds quicker than their rivals and cruising home to take P1 and P2 unchallenged.

Benjamin Rouget stayed out for a few more laps and co-driver Dong Liang came out of the pit in fourth, sandwiched between Fist Team AAI’s Ivan Lee and K2C’s Sennan Fielding. Dong Liang emerged victorious from the battle for the final podium position. Sennan Fielding also edged Lee a couple of laps later to claim fourth. The 22-year-old British GT campaigner briefly challenged the McLaren at one point but in the end did not have the pace to make it stick.  

Ryan Liu and Jack Mitchell’s #618 China Equity AMR Aston Martin suffered from a power steering issue and had to start from the pit lane. They finished fifth ahead of KINGS Racing’s #19 Audi, Fist Team AAI’s #91 BMW and China Equity AMR #619 Vantage.

DRIVER QUOTES

GT3 Class

1^stPlace: JRM

Li Chao: I managed to avoid the starting incidents and that took a bit of luck. Chris did a fantastic job in his stint and I am happy with the team’s performance today. 

Chris van der Drift: the safety car came out at a pretty good time and I had a good fight with Mitch and David. The team did a good job and the car just steadily became quicker and quicker throughout the weekend.

2^ndPlace: KINGS Racing

Xu Jia:I was hit by someone from behind during the start but thankfully I could make those positions back. Unfortunately the safety car has killed our advantage but Mitch did a great job in his stint.

Mitch Gilbert:Xu did a great job regaining five or six positions, but we were very unlucky with the safety car. With the extra 50kg of success weight the car wasn’t at its best. 

3^rdPlace: TSRT Racing

David Chen:it is such a shame to lose the lead we had during the race twice in a weekend. Maybe we haven’t found the right set up yet.

Michael Choy: tough first stint, but we were lucky to have the safety car bunching up the field. 

AM/AM Winner: D2 Racing

Kuo Kuo Hsin: my cool suit had a problem and it was incredibly hot in the car. Thankfully I recovered some time behind safety car, and left the pit in P1. I took some damage to my aero package and the car felt really unstable at 200kph. I was under a lot of pressure from the pro drivers too.

GTC Class

1^stPlace: Xtreme Motorsports:

Dominic Ang: Song Bo did a great first stint, and the safety car provided a chance for a good fight among the top 3. In the second stint everybody was making mistakes. I myself made one too but was lucky to bring the car back in first place.

2^ndPlace: R+ Racing

Daniel Lu: We had a slower pit stop so we lost a position after the pit window. I overtook two cars but the tyres were going off and I locked up, and lost a position to the Radical. 

Wang Tao: Our car doesn’t have ABS and I had to push really hard to overtake #25. I was almost sliding in and out of the corner. Then I had to protect the tyres so my teammate can finish the race in a decent car.

3^rdPlace: D2 Racing

CJ Huang: Our car had a problem with the brakes and then we were struggling with the tyres; that’s why I made a mistake and spun. I am still pretty satisfied with P3 today.

GT4 Class

1^stPlace: Winning Team

David McIntyre: Very happy to take the first victory of the season. As reigning champion we are fielding three cars in 2018, and hopefully there are more wins to come. Our teammates Benjamin and Dong Liang also defended well against the rivals. 

Charlie Fagg: yesterday’s race was a bit disappointing because we lost a 30second lead due to the Safety Car. Therefore we changed strategy this time and had David running the first stint. 

2^ndPlace: Xtreme Motorsports 

Shi Liang: We were quite surprised to get P2 today because our car had some problems on Saturday and couldn’t finish the race. Thankfully the team worked overnight to fix the issue so we could achieve the results today. 

Thomas Ashton: we had plenty of podiums and victories in Zhuhai, so I am glad to finally get our first one now in Zhejiang. Our cars in both classes had issues yesterday but thankfully the team came around. Also happy to get the fastest lap today. 

3^rdPlace: Winning Team

Dong Liang: Saturday was not a good day for our team. We had the lead but those were taken away from us because of the safety car. I couldn’t start yesterday because of an issue with the car, and I am standing in for Raph who wasn’t feeling so well yesterday. Tough day! We have the longest pit stop time because of a penalty, but I am glad to finish on the podium under the circumstance. 

Benjamin Rouget: the contact in the beginning affected the handling of the car slightly, and we had another safety car today. But happy to get on the podium. 

Am/Am Winner: Fist Team AAI

Kevin Chen: we had a pretty good start and a clean fight with the Winning Team rivals. The safety car caught us by surprise but hopefully we will have more luck next time. 

Ivan Lee: tough day today battling the Pro drivers in my stint!