22 Mar 2012 Rookie outguns veteran, Pan Delta Super Racing Festival Circuit Hero Two

At 1:15pm on 18 March, the most civilian race in the Pan Delta Super Racing Festival, Circuit Hero Two, commences. 34 cars in various classes that are familiar to the casual spectator, provides a connection between motorsport and everyday road driving. The interesting advertising on the cars, the friends and family members in the grandstands, all demonstrates the fact that this is a race that welcomes new comers.

Pole sitter is Jerome Badaraco in a Honda CL7, entered in the 2000cc class. His best lap yesterday was 1:51.928. Second on the grid is Gary Sham in a Honda DC5. He is the fastest in the 2000A class. "Baldy" He Wei-Hang is fourth behind Wong Ka-Hong. But Wong Ka-Hong's car is in the N2000 class while He Wei-Hang's car is in the open class. The top four are all able to lap in 1:55s, although not in the same group, they are competitive enough to fight for every corner.

As the race starts, Badaraco makes a clean getaway. He moves to the right to protect his position. But Wong Ka-Hong also makes a good start and goes the other way to cut inside of Badaraco. The rest of the enormous field funnel through the first corner.

At turn 3, Wong Ka-Hong is holding on to his lead. But Badaraco is clearly faster on the straight and he is able to pull alongside Wong. Wong though manages to protect the corner.

At the end of lap 1, Badaraco uses his superior corner exit speed to pass Wong Ka-Hong on the main straight. No. 3 He Wei-Hang passes Wong Wan-Lung on lap 2 and is now up to third place. Badaraco then sets a 1:53s best lap.

On lap 3, all the race cars have falled into their own groups of battle, those in front, although not in the same class, are battling hard for track positions. In the middle of lap 3, He Wei-Hang outbrakes Wong Ka-Hong into a corner and begins to close in on Badaraco. But the latter's superior performance makes that a very tall order. Baldy though, racing in front of his legion of fans, can never give up. On lap 4, no. 16 Gary Sham passes Wong Ka-Hong for third place. The top 3 are all within 3 seconds of each other. The race is far from over.

On lap 6, Badaraco extends his lead to over 5 seconds. At this moment, at turn 4, no. 16 Gary Sham has a coming together with no. 38, female driver Wu Mu-Lian. Wu's car spins around and hits the rear wheel on Gary Sham's left side. His car then somersaults for one and a half times and lands on its roof in the grass area near turn 5. This was a big accident but Gary Sham seems to be fine. He gets out of the car and move to the safe zone before the marshals arrive. As the position of the wreck is dangerous, the race officials decides to deploy the safety car.

The safety car bunches up the field but as the time need to clear the accident area is lengthy, there would not be much race distance left. At the end of lap 8, the safety car returns to the pitlane and the race re-starts. Badaraco immediately pulls out a lead. No. 2 Ko Shi-Chun overtakes Wong Ka-Hong down at turn 1 and gets himself up to second.

In the end Jerome Badaraco wins the first race of Circuit Hero Two in 2012. Wong Ka-Hong finishes second and Wei Zhao-Yin finishes third.