Beijing Rnd 5 Race Report – KINGS Racing, D2 Racing and China Equity AMR claims one victory apiece in each class

KINGS Racing’s Martin Rump and Wang Liang ascended to GT3 top step after Team JRM suffered another post-race penalty. CJ Huang emerged victorious in GTC after a hard-fought battle against his Radical rival. Jack Mitchell and Ryan Liu celebrated another triumph, which put the duo in GT4 title lead by 1 point. 

GT3

Third time is the charm! After two extra formation laps, the lights finally went green and all cars made it through the start without incident. However, an early drizzle 10 minutes into the race throw a spanner in the works and broke up the heated battle among the top 4 cars, who were separated by merely 2 seconds. 

One lap after the track was declared ‘WET’, the new condition claimed its first victim and saw Wang Liang lost his rear coming out of the high speed left hander of turn 12. This unsettled Li Chao who was following closely behind and had to take avoiding action. The Beijing driver gained a position but is now trailing the leading pack by 6 seconds.

D2’s Kuo Kuo Hsin had an excellent first stint, and slowly carved his way through the field from fourth. He exerted his dominance with a decisive move against pole sitter Xu Jia on lap 20, and took the lead of the race before the pit window opened.

Sadly for the championship leader Xu, his car suffered a gearbox issue half way through the race and was forced to stop after 22 laps; this retirement promoted the #911 Team JRM Porsche and #8 KINGS Audi up to second and third after the pit stop. 

After taking the wheel, Chris van der Drift soon laid down a marker and came hot on the heels of Kuo. His effort was aided by the lap 33 Safety Car, which was deployed to rescue a beached GTC Radical. The New Zealander quickly dispatched the AMG to take the lead after the restart. 

Further behind, Martin Rump also nipped through the D2 driver and followed van der Drift over the line. 

Pan Chao and Li Jiaqi drove their brand new R+ Racing Porsche 911 GT3R to overall fourth and took second spot for the GT3 Am/Am category. 

Sadly for Team JRM, their long awaited victory was again taken away by a post-race time penalty for insufficient pit stop time, which promoted KINGS’ Wang Liang and Martin Rump to the lead. D2’s Kuo Kuo Hsin also took a time penalty for using unauthorised parts and but managed to salvage his third place finish. 

GTC

Xtreme Motorsports took pole and Liu Kai managed to hold off attack from championship leader D2’s CJ Huang in the first stint. However, Huang benefited a shorter pit stop time and closed in on the #68 Radical after driver change. He then made the overtaking move stick on lap 25 at the tight hairpin of turn 4, and proceeded to dominate the race and finished one lap ahead of the second-placed R+ Racing.

The Radical showed impressive pace, but saw their victory hopes dashed when it ran into the gravel trap at turn 1, which prompted the Safety Car.

R+ Racing’s Wang Tao drove a mature race and returned the car to teammate Zhang Dasheng in pristine condition. Experienced Porsche cup car driver Zhang brought home a second place finish ahead of Xtreme Motorsports’ Song Bo and Dominic Ang, who were ruing brake temperature issues throughout the weekend. 

R+ Racing’s Lamborghini entry Xiao Min and Shang Lei finished fourth overall and came second in the GTC Am/Am classification. 

GT4                                                                                                

Pole-sitter Lo Sze Ho made a great getaway at the green light and began to build a gap with the chasing pack. In clean air, the fast-running Xtreme Motorsports KTM was able to consistently lap 1.5s faster than his rivals, and soon disappeared into the distance. 

Kevin Chen in the Fist Team AAI BWM also made up two places during the opening lap, cutting in between David McIntyre and Ryan Liu to take P2 in one sweeping move to vault up to second. 

Winning Team’s David McIntyre struggled with grip in the opening laps and lost a position, but soon awoke from the starting slumber and picked up the pace. The Briton held off an attack from China Equity AMR’s Ryan Liu to hand over the McLaren to teammate Dong Liang in podium position. 

At the 25th minutes’ mark, most of the cars dived into the pit lane for driver change but for the leading KTM and BMW. Unfortunately for the Xtreme Motorsports #86, a recurring technical issue forced them to limp back into the pit and they finished 3 laps down in P7.

After the driver change, the #570 McLaren of Dong Liang pipped the BMW for the lead but was soon caught by the fast running Aston Martin of Jack Mitchell. The Briton’s effort was aided by compatriot Sennan Fielding, who threw Dong off his game slightly while unlapping himself on lap 35. Mitchell took the opportunity to close the gap and passed the Chinese driver on turn 4 not too long after.

Dominic Ang in the #28 Lotus Evora passed Ivan Lee’s BMW in the closing laps of the race on turn 1, and beat Fist Team AAI to the last spot on the podium for himself and teammate Anthony Chan. 

K2C’s Kenny Chung was able to hold on to his position but his Ginetta developed a gearbox issue that consigned him to the back of the field before the pit stop. After taking the wheel, Sennan Fielding mounted a superb comeback to pick up a good haul of 10 points for the Hong Kongese team with a P5 finish. 

Zhang Fangxuan and David Pun in the second Aston Martin boht put in solid stints but a mid race spin has demoted the #619 to sixth.