25 Mar 2013 Circuit Hero One Race 2: Mario disappears into the distance, rookies make good performances

In the morning of 17 March, the sun has shied away fro Zhuhai, but the weather is still breezy and warm. It is excellent for the crowd in the grandstands and quite comfortable for the drivers in thier race suits.

The Circuit Hero One cars soon appear on track. This group has already raced once yesterday. Italian Mario Ferraris' Mercedes C63 simply drove into the distance, while Zhu Xiao-Dong's BMW M3 and Byron Tong's Ferrari F360 had an entertaining battle, until Tong went off the track. From the entry list, Tong is still in the race but he has to line up on the 9th row due to his DNF. It seems rather unlikely the duo will resume their battle today.

The grid today is set by yesterday's Race 1 result. Thus Mario Ferraris is on pole position. As he won yesterday's race 1 by a minute, today the only question is how much his margin of victory will be. William O'Brien is second on the grid while Li Qing-Xin is third.

At 11:00, the warm-up lap begins. At the green light, the spectators stood up in their seats to better see the action, as the cars roar down the main straight. Today Mario Ferraris make a good start and sprint into the lead. Zhu Xiao-Dong's start is only so-so as he is squeezed to the side by Li Qing-Xin. But he was able to hold onto his position until at turn 4 when Li Qing-Xin goes past in his Ariel Atom.

The two men begin their fight for the rest of the race, as the BMW M3 clings onto the rear of the Ariel Atom. The two cars go side-by-side into a corner, with the M3 managing to sustain its speed and gets ahead.

On lap 3, the yellow no. 32 race car suddenly loses control and half the car goes into the sand trap, bringing up a lot of dust. Fortunately the car is not stuck and he is able to continue. The Ferrari F360 stops for an unknown reason and it will not score any points this weekend.

Lin Wei-Hua's no. 66 race car has a long body part hanging lose from it. He drags this thing around the track with him for half a lap. It has caused some problems for the cars behind him. Just as the race organizers are about to call him into the pits, he has gone off the track and into the sand trap for retirement.

Mario Ferraris has already begun lapping backmarkers. Today his fastest lap is 1:41.433. On lap 6 he is already 30 seconds ahead of the second place car. Zhu Xiao-Dong's M3 has pulled itself clear of the Atom and is on course for a podium finish.

On lap 8, the 4 Ginettas has got everyone's attention. Three cars from group almost go through turn 1 together, with one close behind. But at turn 5, one of them suddenly pulls out and gets ahead.

In the end, the Mercedes C63 of Mario Ferraris wins the race comfortably by 43 seconds. William O'Brien finishes second while Zhu Xiao-Dong successfully gets on the podium.