24 Dec 2013 Circuit Hero 500km Endurance Race - Lotus Elise wins as Caterham suffers water leak

On 22 December 2013, the last race of the year at Zhuhai International Circuit, Circuit Hero 500km Endurance, officially starts at 1:45pm.

The race is divided into A, B and C classes. Each car can be shared by 2 to 4 drivers. The car must pit for driver change and refuelling. The grid is determined by the fastest time set by any member of the team.

On pole position is the no. 7 Caterham Super 7. As it is 6 seconds faster than the next fastest car, the no. 26, there seems to be nothing between it and class victory.

The class B entry, no. 98 Lotus Elise shared by Philip Callow and Jon Flinn is second on the grid with a time of 1:48.188. Second and third fastest in class B are no. 26 Ariel Atom of Field Lee John/Robert Buchheit and the no. 2 of Sam Hui/Chen You-Nan/Rui Valente/Lin Hai-Xi. Their times are 1:50.632 and 1:53.910 respectively. These three cars are very competitive against each other and a battle between them is on.

Class C's no 12 Toyota Yaris, shared by Deng Guang-Yao/Zeng Jian-Wen and the sister car driven by Liu Yi-Feng/Wu Hao-Lin are evenly matched. Only 0.36sec separate the two.

Today no. 7 is also raising money for Ronald McDonald House Charities. They have invited over 20 children to the race and to support the team. Before the race, the children also took to the grid to meet the drivers and have a photograph together.

Due to the accident in the previous race, the start of the Circuit Hero 500km Endurance Race is delayed to 1:45pm.

In the early stages of the race, no. 7 leads easily and pulls out a big gap between itself and the rest. But one of the class B favourites, no. 26 Ariel Atom, does not have a good start, and is overtaken by the no. 2 Honda EP3. The two battle until no. 26 gains the upper hand a few laps later. By then the no. 98 Lotus Elise is already 25 seconds up the road.

On lap 9, no. 7 suffers a mechanical problem and pits. Its radiator is leaking and the team's technicians have to carry out an emergency repair. The race is still in its early stages and if it can be repaired quickly there is still a chance of getting a good result.

Thus no. 98 leads no. 26 by 54 seconds, with no. 2 in third place. But no. 2 then hit the wall at T8 and is unable to continue.

After an hour, no. 98 continues to lead while no. 26 runs into the sandtrap at T1. No. 22 and no. 33 also crash at T1. No. 22 is able to keep going but no. 33 has to retire from the race.

After one and a half hours of racing, no. 12 and no. 13 in class C are only 4.5 seconds apart. But no. 13 stops on lap 46 with a problem which delayed it for a long time.

The race is now a battle of reliability as competitors fall to the side. The gap among the remaining cars are big and there are very few on track battles. In the end no. 98 wins the race with 88 laps recorded, as the 3 hours limit is reached.

Class B is in the end won by no. 98 Lotus Elise of Philip Callow/Jon Flinn. Second is no. 11 Liu Shi-Ming/Fang Wei-Cheng/Fang Wei-Peng. Third is no. 22 Liu Zhi-Yong/Yu Jin-Chong. Class A is won by no. 86 Toyota 86, shared by Fang Zhi-Qiang/Fang Wei-Ji/Fang Wei-Guang. Class C title is taken by no. 12 Deng Guang-Yao/Zeng Jian-Wen. The Rookie Award is won by no. 1 Li Shu-Bo/Wang Yuan/Ye Wei-Dong.