08 Jan 2019 #71 wins while #99 fails to defend its crown and only finishes second | 2019 Speed Hero 3 Hours Endurance Race
On 6 January 2019,Speed Hero 3 Hours Endurance Race is held at Zhuhai International Circuit. The overall winner is #71 Dan Kruger/Wo Zhi-Rong who completed 101 laps using 3 hours and 59 seconds. Jack Ao Ieong Fu/Alvin Mak/Ao Ieong Hou took their #99 to second place overall, Li Hong/Yuan Ji-Bo/Ma Sai finished third in their #77.
Since entering the winter season, cold air continues to arrive in the Southern area. While northerners can wear a singlet and enjoy an popsicle at home, southerners can only wear their downs jacket and hug their warm water bag as closely as they can. The race day is a cold and wet day, with no sunshine at ZIC. But still the atmosphere is vibrant and lively, with the 21 teams eager to go for the first race of the year.
The race begins at 9:00 in the morning, according to the qualifying result from yesterday, the first row is occupied by #99, #71 and #65. All bikes start smoothly with #71 taking the lead for a short period, before being overtaken by #99. The top 3 maintains their order. But #77 drops to the very back after one lap, the team has to bring the bike back to the pits for repairs another lap later. By the time #77 returns to the track they are already two laps behind. They begin their chase and 23 laps later they are up to 9th place. At 9:45 a.m. the teams begin to make their first pit stops to change riders. #99 completes its first pit stop and remains in first place, maintaining its one lap advantage.
As the race enters the second hour, CL2 class #38 and #11 are penalized drive-through penalties for speeding in the pit lane. At the same time, #99 has completed its second pit stop, #71 and #65, in second and third places respectively, are already on their third pit stops. The two crews have traded positions many times. After more than 40 laps of chasing, #77 is finally back up to fourth place. On lap 66, CL2 class #20 stops on the track after going through turn 1. The rider makes the decision to push his bike into the safe area, remove the transponder and runs back to the pit area, puts it on the spare bike and continues racing.
Into the third hour of the race, #99 continues to lead, #71 is in second place and #65 is running third. On lap 77, as #65 enters the pits for the fourth time, #77 is promoted to third place and #68 goes up to fourth place. #65 is down to fifth. On lap 85, #77 pits for the fifth time and is in fifth place when it emerges on track. #68 is back up to third place. On lap 88, #65 has an engine failure and spills oil all over the track at turn 11. The oil causes #20, #99, #91, #86 and #41 to slide off the circuit into the sand trap. The race officials immediately shows the yellow flag and deploys the safety car. There is only 25 minutes to go. The safety car leads the field around for two laps. The race resumes, #71 is now in the lead and #99 has dropped back to second place. #77 is running third. Among the teams, except #20 who was already on their spare bike and cannot continue, all other teams have to move their transponder onto their spare bikes in order to continue. There is 12 minutes left to go.
The race enters into the last lap, #71 crosses the line in first place and takes both overall and CL1 victories. #99 finishes second overall and in class. #77 is third overall and wins CL2 class. #68 is fourth overall and second in CL2. #24 takes fifth place overall and third in CL2. #19 takes sixth place overall while #30 finishes seventh and third place in CL1.
After the race, winning rider Dan Kruger said, “Both my arms are injured and I just had surgery on them, so the race was very difficult. But our race strategy was very good. Yesterday we did a lot of pit stop practices, so we were quick changing tyres. The tyres were very good, we chose a harder compound which was very suitable. My teammate Wu Rong-Zhi is a local Zhuhai rider, this was his first race ever. I am very happy for him but I want to stress that this win was a team effort.”
#99 Jack Ao Ieong Fu said, “We used our normal strategy to race and although there was a small problem with the bike, we performed well. We were leading by two laps. But unfortunately another bike had an engine failure, my brother Ao Ieong Hou slipped there as soon as he applied the brakes. After that he had to get the transponder off his bike and back to the pits for the other bike, then we could continue. Sadly that costs us a lot of time.”
#77 Ma Sai said, “I am very happy to win CL2. We had a few problems at the start and lost a lot of ground, after that we chased very hard, near the end, the accidents at turn 11 resulted in the safety car coming on, the gap came down. At that time my teammate Yuan Ji-Bo was on track, after the safety car left the track, it became something like a sprint race, it was very good fun.”
Shen Xi, who rode for the #68 team in CL2 said, “We are very happy to take second place in CL2. First I have to thank my teammate Yu Yao-Long, we made a great team. We fell down before the safety car came out. Yu Yao-Long picked up the transponder and immediately took it back to the pits for me to take over. I came out just behind the safety car and did not lose too much time. We were really lucky.”
Pirelli is the official tyre for the Speed Hero 3 Hours Endurance Race. In order to adapt to the weather conditions of Zhuhai, Pirelli selected a harder compound for the race. The tyre selected for this race is the same tyre used in the World Superbike Championship (WSBK). Whether in materials or construction, the tyre is world class equipment. The fortunate riders of Speed Hero once again turn their passion into energy and released it into this cold winter. We hope to see them perform even better in the future Pan Delta events!