30 Oct 2010 Tianyu DTU Racing and Tianjian Racing take titles before last race; GP125 leaves best show till last

Tianyu DTU Racing and Tianjian Racing take titles before last race; GP125 leaves best show till last
——2010 CSBK Zhuhai Final Round Race 1

After two qualifying sessions, the 2010 China Superbike Championship (CSBK) Final Round’s polesitters for each class were determined. In 150cc Open class, Tianyu DTU Racing’s Qiu Shi-Yi starts from pole, in GP125cc, class A pole is taken by Yuan XGJ Racing’s Zeng Jian-Hang, while class B pole position is won by Mao Rui-Bin. In SS600cc class, there was no surprise when Huang Shi-Zhao of Yes! Yamaha Tianjian Racing cleans up and he will be fighting to win his first ever CSBK championship in the afternoon.

150cc Open: Qiu Ming-Xian wins title

The first race was held at 3:05pm. 150cc Open class takes to the track and at the start of the race, Tianyu DTU Racing’s two riders made poor starts, allowing S&S Racing’s Yu Yang, Zhai Zi-Yang and Yuan Ji-Bo to take the leading positions. After a lap, Yu Yang led the pack with his two teammates closely behind. But Tianyu DTU Racing’s Qiu Shi-Yi took advantage of the S&S Racing riders’ internal battle to take second position. S&S Racing would not take it lying down, their three riders soon counter-attacked, a closely fought battle soon developed, creating some great racing for the spectators.

On lap 3, Qiu Shi-Yi extends his lead to close to one second. Championship leader Qiu Ming-Xian is racing with a more conservative strategy, just looking to finish the race with a consistent performance. As long as he does not lose more than 5 points to Yuan Ji-Bo, then he will be crowned champion with a race to spare.

In the middle of the race, Qiu Ming-Xian suddenly began to push, he passed Zhai Zi-Yang for second place and put pressure on all his rivals. Yuan Ji-Bo, who declared his desire to claim second overall position before the race, seems to suffer with tyre troubles and was unable to improve his lap time. During this round, Yuan Ji-Bo’s S&S Racing changed from using Bridgestone to a sponsor’s brand, but Yuan Ji-Bo claimed that the new tyres are not as good as the Bridgestones in terms of grip, therefore he is not able to improve on his lap time.

In the final stages, Qiu Ming-Xian made a move on his teammate Qiu Shi-Yi to take the lead. By now Shi Zhao Racing’s Bi Jian-Bin took advantage of the fight between DTU and S&S to sneak into second place.

At the flag, Qiu Ming-Xian crossed the line in first place, successfully winning the 2010 CSBK 150cc Open class riders’ title. This is also DTU’s second successive title win. Qiu Shi-Yi and Zhai Zi-Yang crossed the line in second and third places.

GP125cc: Name of the new king still unknown

With the points difference very small, the battle for supremacy in GP125cc class is much more lively than 150cc Open class. At the start of the race, Zeng Jian-Hang converts his pole position to race lead. Hu Zhao-Neng, starting from 4th position, storms to second place. Zhang Hai-Long, Zhou You-Yao and He Zi-Xian follows. After 1 lap, XGJ Racing’s Zeng Jian-Hang extended his lead to 2 seconds. Although he has no chance of winning the title, the 2009 champion is determined to show his ability.

On lap 3, Zhang Hai-Long began to lose speed, He Zi-Xian used his masterful skills to get up to second. Kinlon and Maxinger are hard at it, their finishing positions will determine the winner of the championship.

2 laps later, using He Zi-Xian and Hu Zhao-Neng’s battle, Lingken Racing’s Zhang Hai-Long closed in on the pair. The three title contenders are now fighting over 2nd place in this race. The gap among them was just a negligible 0.1 second, passing and re-passing happened frequently on track, sending the spectators’ pulses racing.

To the last two laps, 2nd to 4th are Zhang Hai-Long, Hu Zhao-Neng and He Zi-Xian. Maybe it is a fitness problem, He Zi-Xian began to lose pace, while Zhang Hai-Long uses Hu and He’s battle to extend his lead to 1.4 seconds. Another advantage for Zhang Hai-Long is that leader Zeng Jian-Hang’s bike suffered a problem near the end, allowing him a real chance of claiming the full 25 points of the race.

Finally, Lingken Racing’s Zhang Hai-Long, Maxinger Racing’s Hu Zhao-Neng and Kinlon Shenli Racing’s He Zi-Xian finish 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Their points standings now read: Zhang Hai-Long 138 points, He Zi-Xian is second with 131 points while Hu Zhao-Neng is now third with 126 points. All will have to wait till the final race before the GP125cc class A riders’ championship is decided. Class B was won by Liang Yu-Xi of Majiri Racing.

SS600cc: Huang Shi-Zhao scores 6 win in 7 races to claim crown

SS600cc’s race 1 was held at 4:35pm. As the red lights go out, Huang Zhi-Yu makes a cracking start to lead into the first corner, leaving the Yamaha trio behind. But just a mere half lap later, Huang Zhi-Yu lost his lead position to Huang Shi-Zhao, probably due to inferior equipment. Xiao Jin and Zhang Wei-An also began to close in on Huang Zhi-Yu.

On lap 4, Zhang Wei-An overtook his teammate Xiao Jin for 3rd place. By now Zhou Hao-Yun has also closed in and 4 riders were now fighting for second place. On lap 7, Zhang Wei-An dived down the inside line to overtake Huang Zhi-Yu while Zhou Hao-Yun was now finding it hard to keep up the pace.

But Huang Zhi-Yu did not want to fall behind Zhang Wei-An, as they were battling for third place in the championship. A lap later, Huang Zhi-Yu used late braking to retake second place. Maybe he used too much strength in his fight with Zhang Wei-An, Huang soon made a mistake and both Zhang Wei-An and Xiao Jin went through. Huang Zhi-Yu fought back pass Xiao Jin later on to claim third place.

In the end, Huang Shi-Zhao crossed the line first to win race 1 of the final round, at the same time claiming the SS600cc riders’ title. His Yes! Yamaha Tianjian Racing also won the SS600cc teams’ title.