07 Aug 2011 Xiao Jin wins first race; SYM Jiguang fights back - 2011 CSBK Beijing Round Race Two

2011 China Superbike Championship (CSBK) Beijing Round race one offered some truly exciting races, with teammates fighting each other then a sudden emergence of a wild animal to decide the race winner. Anything can and will happen, giving the spectators loads of expectations for race two in the afternoon on 7 August.

Xiao Jin wins first race over his master

At 13:40, SS600cc race two begins. At the start, Xiao Jin keeps his lead into the first corner. Huang Shi-Zhao and Huang Zhi-Yu follows closely. But the leader is only 0.1 second ahead and cannot relax.

On lap 4, Tianyu DTU rider Huang Zhi-Yu is beginning to fall back from the two leading Yamaha riders. His problem is unknown but his lap times decreases dramatically, falling within range of fourth placed Liang Yu-Xi. At the same time Huang Shi-Zhao loses touch with Xiao Jin a little, allowing the gap to grow to 0.5 second.

In the middle of the race, Xiao Jin keeps pushing and extends his lead to over two seconds. Huang Shi-Zhao seems to have a physical problem. At the same time, the race for third heats up, Huang Zhi-Yu, Liang Yu-Xi and Li Peng-Yu are fighting nose to tail, any mistakes and the rider will be out of the battle.

The first to brink is Liang Yu-Xi, his bike slides off and his leg is trapped for a while. Fortunately the race marshals arrives quickly to release him, but he is not able to continue. Li Peng-Yu uses this opportunity to pass teammate Huang Zhi-Yu and rises up to third place.

In the later stages of the race, Xiao Jin continues to run at a blinding pace and extends his lead to over 6 seconds. The Tianyu DTU duo’s battle for third is still on. In the end, Xiao Jin wins his first race of the season with Huang Shi-Zhao in second place. Beijing’s Fastest Man Li Peng-Yu finishes in third place.

SYM dominates podium

Losing race one was not in the script for SYM Jiguang Racing. Faced with the new challenge from Young Cubs Racing, they must be spending lunch time pondering precisely what to do to win race two.

At the start, the trio of SYM Jiguang riders fail to get away cleanly and are led into turn 1 by Zhou Sheng Jun-Jie. At the end of lap 1, the top 6 riders are: Zhou Hang-Kai, Qiu Shi-Yi, Zhou Sheng Jun-Jie, Chen Yuan-Hang, Chen Xiao-Lei and Qiu Ming-Xian. On lap 4, the top 4 riders Zhou Hang-Kai, Qiu Shi-Yu, Zhou Sheng Jun-Jie and Chen Xiao-Lei are only 0.4 second apart. Qiu Ming-Xian has also overtaken Chen Yuan-Hang for fifth and is closing in on the leading quartet.

Into the second half of the race, Qiu Ming-Xian forces himself into the lead, ahead of Zhou Hang-Kai, Chen Yuan-Hang, Qiu Shi-Yi and Chen Xiao-Lei, while Zhou Sheng Jun-Jie suffers an engine failure and retires from the race. But third placed Chen Yuan-Hang has no answer for Qiu Shi-Yi’s attacks and SYM Jiguang Racing takes over the first 3 places with 2 laps to go. Finally, SYM Jiguang Racing successfully achieved its revenge by dominating the 3 podium positions. Chen Xiao-Lei, Chai Zheng-Yu and Chen Peng-Yuan finishes from 4th to 6th respectively.