12 Jan 2016 ZIC Superbike 3 Hours Race - Race Report

At 8:30 on 10 January 2016, ZIC Superbike 3 Hours Race commences at Zhuhai International Circuit. The weather at Zhuhai today is cloudy with a chance of rain. The superbike teams may have to use more flexible strategies in today's race.

The race begins on time and #99 Ouyang Fu/Yuan Ji-Bo/Hu Zhao-Neng leads the pack into turn 1. One lap later it is already 3 seconds ahead. #71 Dan Kruger/Karl Roe moves up to second place on lap 2 at T11. By the end of lap 2 #99 is a massive 6.4 seconds ahead.

The race soon settles down with the order: #99, #71. #21. #19，#13，#77，#22 and #30. #99 also sets the fastest lap at this stage, 1:40.284. With just 15 minutes of the race gone, #99 has caught up with the backmarkers and begins to lap them. #71 holds down second place, about 25 seconds adrift. #21, #19 and #13 are in third to fifth places, the gap among them is just 6 seconds or so.

#21 and #19 are fighting with each other now and finally #19 gets ahead. But after all the teams make their stops, #13 gets up to third place. #99 continues to lead without a change of rider until lap 22 at 36 minutes. They are able to stay in the lead after the stop. Second placed #71 pits for a second time at 51 minutes, by the time it returns to the track it is two laps down from #99. Four times overall champion team #71 will likely have to give up its title this year.

After an hour, the race leading #99 has completed 35 laps. If it continues at this pace, it is not impossible to equal or even break last year's 105 laps record. #71 continues in second place while #19, #13 and #21 battle for third. Actually #71 is often faster on track, but the operation seems to be not as smooth as #99.

#71 changes rider again at 1 hr 20 min, allowing #19 to close in while #99 can further relax.

With half the race gone, #99 is one lap ahead of #71. The lap time set by #71 on lap 52 is almost 3 seconds faster than #99. #71 also holds the fastest lap of the race: 1:38.989. So there is a chance that #71 can still catch up. #19, #23 and #13 are in 3rd to 5th places. The top 5 teams are within 2 laps of the leader but the rest are more than 5 laps behind.

#71 makes another fastest lap on lap 59: 1:38.971, it then pushes the record further to 1:38.824 on lap 62. Then at 1 hr 51 min #71 changes rider once more. But unfortunately soon afterwards the bike stops by T9, apparently it has no power. The rider leaves the stranded superbike. A fifth win overall now looks very, very unlikely.

#99 now leads the race by 2 laps over #19. #21 is in third place. The top 3 positions are occupied by CL2 class runners. Now everyone s focus is on the battle for second place. #19 and #21 are only 12 seconds apart with an hour of the race to go. #33 runs into the sand trap but with the marshals help it is able to rejoin the race. Later on, #33 does it again, this time for good.

#21 begins to attack #19 and the gap between them is just 7 seconds. But before it can mount an attack it is back into the pits again for a change. At 2 hrs 18 min, the race leader #99 has completed 80 laps. At the 2.5 hours mark, #21 and #19 are running nose to tail, with a mere 0.3 second between them. But then #19 strikes a problem allowing #21 to move up to second and #71 to move up to third place.

At the 3 hour mark, the race draws to a close. #99 completes 105 laps and wins the race. #21 completes 101 laps and takes second place. Third place goes to four times overall champion #71 with 100 laps under their belts. Although #71 did not win overall, it still won the CL1 class.

#99 rider Ouyang Fu said, "We are very glad to have won. Everything happened as we expected. The bikes had no problems. Completing 105 laps is also what we had expected, it was a smooth race for us."

CL1 class winner #71 Dan Kruger said,"We had electrical problem with one of the bikes, Karl had to run back to take my bike. After that we had to share one bike for the rest of the race, when we stop we have to refuel and costs us extra time. Later on the transmission also broke on the bike. Fortunately we were fast enough to win CL1 class."

Race Results:

Class	Result	No.	Riders
CL2	1	71	Dan Kruger/Karl Roe
	2	13	Liu Chuang/Li Xiong-Bin/Yu Yao-Long
	3	77	Gao Lu/He Zhi-Ning
CL1	1	99	Ouyang Fu/Yuan Ji-Bo/Hu Zhao-Neng
	2	21	Ma Sai/Shen Xi
	3	19	Michel Delarace/Ouyang Hao