22 Mar 2014 Scirocco R Cup Race 1: William Lok wins as Kevin Tse and David Lau finish second and third

On 22 March 2014, Scirocco R Cup ushers in the first battle of the year. The new race season demonstrates its strong popularity and attractiveness to sponsors at the Pan Delta Super Racing Festival.

As one of many series in one make racing, Scirocco R Cup has a distintice difference. With the identical Scirocco sports car, identical modifications and standard Giti competition tyres, the race is all about driver technique. 18 drivers from China, Chinese Taipei, Macau, Hong Kong, Italy, Canada and Belgium vie for victory. Series veterans such as Andrea Reggiani and William Lok will have to look out for newcomers such as David Lau, Stephen Lee and Sam Lok. A look at their resume shows that these drivers are very experienced. For them, the Scirocco R Cup fulfills the need for high performance one make racing. In the future, more and more Chinese drivers are sure to take part, as they start to get involved in international motorsports.

With identical machinery, the lap times achieved by the drivers are also very close. In the morning's qualifying session, Hong Kong driver William Lok claims pole position with a best lap of 1:51.487. Second placed Carlo Piero Mantori set a 1:52.266. Kevin Tse is third with 1:52.531, with Andrea Reggiani lining up besides him on row 2 with a 1:52.608. The rest of the field are mostly about 0.2 second behind each other as the order goes down.

At 1:30pm, the race begins with a warm up lap. Unlike Circuit Hero, these drivers are more professional and their cars are more advanced. In the qualifying session, it was already clear that most drivers would only perform two or three effective timed laps. Their tyre conservation in qualifying allow them to maximize their use in the race.

The red lights go out and the race begins. No.1 William Lok makes a good start and leads while no. 37 Mantori makes a slow getaway and no. 8 Kevin Tse gets past him. But at the first corner Mantori barge his way back past Kevin Tse to take second place back. No. 21 Andrea Reggiani out-brakes himself for the first corner and has to drive around the sand trap to re-join the race, by now in last place.

Half a lap on, no. 1 William Lok leads, no. 37 Mantori runs second, no. 8 Kevin Tse is third. On lap 2, at turn 12, Carlo Piero Mantori makes a surprise attack on William and successfully takes over the lead down the inside line.

On lap 3, no. 37 Mantori continues to lead with no. 1 William Lok right behind him. No. 8 Kevin Tse continues in third place. These three cars form the leading trio and begin to pull away from the rest of the field. But Carlo has by now already been warned by the race director for dangerous driving as indicated by the black/white flag with his number at the start/finish straight. He will thus receive a 30 seconds penalty.

In the mid-field, the cars in 6th, 7th and 8th are running very close to each other. Just as action is expected, no. 88 Wynch Lee runs off the track, into the sand trap and is out of the race. Yellow flags are waved at turn 9.

On lap 9, no. 1 William Lok runs 4 seconds behind Carlo Piero Mantori, with no. 8 Kevin Tse in third place and no. 36 David Lau in fourth. On the last lap, William makes a last minute effort to win it on the road, but it was not going to happen. Finally, no. 37 Carlo Piero Mantori wins on the road, with the penalty, he is down to 8th.

No. 1 William Lok thus become the first Scirocco R Cup China race winner of 2014. It is also his first win in the series. No. 8 Kevin Tse takes second place and no. 36 David Lau finishes third as well as taking the rookie's class win. William Tan takes fourth place and Andrea Reggiani, after a solid drive, finishes fifth. Tian Li Ying finishes sixth and second in class. Stephen Lee is seventh and third in class. Fastest lap was set by Carlo Piero Mantori, a 1:52.892.

Race 2 will commence on 23 March 2014 at 10:50. Don't miss it!