25 Jun 2015 Easy win - Circuit Hero One Race 1


   
After the fierce battle of ZIC Superbike Race 1, Pan Delta releases the Circuit Hero One machines on track. The race today has been extended to 15 laps from 10 laps, making it a bigger challenge for the drivers and cars.

On the pole position today is the #88 Ferrari 430 driven by Eric Lo. Jon Flinn's Radical starts in second place. A total of 23 cars have entered this race. The Mercedes SLS of Guo Guo-Xin and the Audi R8 LMS of Huang Xi-Zhan start from the back after receiving penalties in qualifying. But the wide track provides plenty of overtaking opportunities and the longer race distance give them the time to charge back to the front. It will be fascinating to see how these two fare in the race.

The red lights go off and the race begins. The #88 Ferrari 430 of Eric Lo makes a good start, #38 Hong Shi-Jie's Mitsubishi Evo also gets away well. The Radical SR1 of Jon Flinn loses out. At T3, #6 Chen Tian-Yang's Subaru STi takes the corner too quickly, he tries to save it but oversteers and spins out of control, hitting the wall on the inside, then bounces back on track. The race officials decides to employ the safety car. The order is #88 Ferrari 430, #38 Mitsubishi Evo, #12 Radical SR1. The powerful #31 Mercedes SLS of Guo Guo-Xin has already overtaken 15 cars and is in 9th place. The safety car is actually a hindrance to him because it prevents him from overtaking others as long as it is on track.

There is plenty of oil on track and the marshals have to do lots of work to clear it up. Also it is near the middle of the track which could be dangerous to the drivers.

On lap 5, the track is cleared and the safety car leaves the track. Racing resumes. The #88 Ferrari 430 smartly leaves a gap between itself and the safety car so it can get a jump on the rest. The Ferrari leads into T1 with the Mitsubishi Evo behind it. The Mercedes SLS resumes its overtaking charge and passes two cars at T1 to take 7th place. At T3-T4, the Radical SR1 uses it agility to overtake the Mitsubishi Evo for 2nd place. On the main straight, the Mercedes SLS and Audi R8 LMS use their immense power to overtake the Mitsubishi Evo for 3rd and 4th places. It should be just a matter of time before the Mercedes SLS takes the lead.

On lap 8, Guo Guo-Xin's Mercedes SLS takes third place from Jon Flinn's Radical SR1. Now he is only 2 seconds behind Eric Lo's Ferrari 430. On lap 8 at T12, Guo Guo-Xin easily overtakes the Ferrari for the lead. (Later Eric Lo claimed he suffered from a gearbox problem.) The Audi R8 LMS of Huang Zhan-Xi also overtakes the troubled Ferrari for second place.

Now it is Guo Guo-Xin's show time. He soon sets a 1:40.518 fastest lap. Eric Lo's Ferrari meanwhile finally succumbs to its gearbox problem and retires from the race. On lap 13, #38 loses control at T14 but he is able to resume. By now the race officials have decided to show the red flag to stop the race, due to damage to the tyre wall in an earlier accident. As the race has completed 13 laps, more than 80% of the race distance, the race is considered complete and will not re-start. Guo Guo-Xin's #31 Mercedes SLS is declared the winner, his teammate Huang Xi-Zhan finishes second while Jon Flinn finished third.

Guo Guo-Xin said after the race, "Today's race actually was quite easy, apart from the start. Because we started from the back it was a little chaotic and dangerous. But otherwise there was no problem. The safety car costed me sometime but in the end it was nothing. Today's race was 15 laps now and longer than before. It is more suitable for this type of car. After the safety car leaves the track, I made my final push and achieved the expected result."

Huang Zhan-Xi said, "Today was really hot. The coming together in the morning means both of us have to start from the back. But for us it was not a big problem. There are many different types of car in the race, some of them were unable to really see us coming up behind them. It was a little dangerous because of that. I had a small fight with the Ferrari 430, as our cars are quite competitive with each other technically. I overtook him by late braking and being more aggressive on the gas. Overall, it was good today and there was no mistakes."

2. Important information of the race
A. Circuit Hero One Race 1 - Top 3 finishers of each class

 

Class
Results
No.
Driver
 
Class A
 
1
11
Liu Xe-Hui
2
1
Xu Yin
3
98
Zeng De-Xun
 Class B
1
38
Hong Shi-Jie
2
2
Xie Rui-Lin
3
8
Zhang Guo-Hao
 
Class C
 
1
49
Pham Thang Kim
2
20
Liu Ke
3
 
 
Class D
1
91
Scott Wrayton
2
99
Frank Yee
3
 
 
Class F
1
19
Zhu Xiao-Dong
2
16
Liu Jiang-Tao
3
18
Lin Rong
Class Open A
1
12
Jon Flinn
2
5
Chen De-Hao
3
 
 
Class Open B
1
31
Guo Guo-Xin
2
75
Huang Xi-Zhan
3
9
Sanne Ulrich Bernd
Please visit www.zic.com.cn for detailed results.
B. Race control incident report

 

Time
Incident
14:15
20，59，26 start from the pit lane.
14:33
59 retires.
14:34
6 hits tyre wall at T3.
14:34
SC board full course.
14:35
7 drives on the grass, 14:39 towed away by tow truck.
14:49
SC board and yellow flag withdrawn.
15:00
9 drives on grass at T11, resumes racing.
15:02
Full course red flag.