20 Apr 2021 Excellent performance | Race won with two laps to go #25 team takes ZMA Touring Car Class C victory
Excellent performance and surprising race
On 18 April, 2021 Zhuhai Motorsports Association Club Race welcomes the ZMA Touring Car Class C Race. In the end, after a 20 laps battle, Rongtai Racing #25 team enjoyed an excellent performance and took ZMA Touring Car Class C race win.
It is worth mentioning that a drivers’ points system has been added to ZMA Touring Car Classes A and B (teams’ points system for class C), so the top 8 finishing drivers will get series points. The points will be added together after the final round and the top 3 drivers of each class will be awarded trophies.
The newly added Class C has also revamped its regulations. A driver change pit stop is mandatory. All teams must decide when to make their pit stops. The extra element will add more intrigue to the race. In the qualifying session in the morning, all the teams showed good forms and achieved good lap times. In the end, Xing Huo Spark Racing #82 team set the fastest lap of 1:58.742, taking pole position for the main race in the afternoon. Guangzhou BoomGEAR #77 team, Rongtai Racing #25 team are second and third respectively.
Main Race
At 14:04 in the afternoon, ZMA Touring Car Class C Race main race begins. A total of 12 teams are taking part. After one lap, the leaders #1 and #82 are fighting hard for the lead, exchanging places many times.
Two laps later, the top 3 are #1, #82 and #72. The trio has formed a leading group. #77, who started second on the grid, is now down in 5th place. On lap 4, the top 3 are still battling with each other. On the main straight, #1 makes a mistake, runs on to the grass and returns, dropping it down to 3rd place. At the same time, the race officials announce that #1 has infringed the starting procedure and is penalized 10 seconds.
At 14:14, the pit lane window is open. All teams must change drivers within the next 15 minutes. As #1 and #72 are embroiled in their battle, #82 is able to get away and now enjoys a 2 seconds lead.
At the beginning of lap 8, all the teams enter the pit lane for driver changes. For now #82 is enjoying good pace and sets the fastest race lap of 1:59.918. Its lead is now 3.675 seconds.
On lap 11, #72 enters the pitlane for a driver change. Not long later #82 and #1 also enters the pit lane for driver changes. #72 has a better handle on the pit stop time and emerges with a 6 seconds lead. Now the top 3 are #72, @25 and #1. #82 has dropped down to 4th place. On lap 13, the lead group begins to lap the backmarkers. #82 is overtaken by #77 and drops another place to 5th place.
On the last two laps, #72 and #25 have established a big lead. They have a lock on the top 2 places. #25 is going quicker and quicker, trying to make a last ditch effort for the lead. It successfully overtakes at T1. The two cars fight until the final moment. In the end, #25 wins the race by a narrow margin. #72 and #77 finish in second and third places respectively.
In the various classes, C1 class top 3 are #33, Tianshi Racing #1 and Xinghai TPR Racing #23. For C2 class, top 3 are Rongtai Racing #25, GoRacing #72 and Guangzhou BoomGEAR #77. C3 class top 2 are Racing Hayabusa #2 and APM Racing #66.
Post Race Interviews
After the race, overall winner #25 Wu Hao-Lin said, “I have raced in the Pan Delta for many years. Both of us are old partners. We have a good understanding in the whole race and worked hard together for the win. Although we made a small mistake at the start, we chased hard afterwards. We controlled it well in the driver change. We took the lead in the last two laps. We are very happy. This is a really good race. Hopefully more and more different car types will take part and we can improve together.”