19 Mar 2017 Rain induces exciting race which ends with red flag (Circuit Hero-Two Race)

At 15:06 on 19 March, the non-stop rain has eased into a slight drizzle. The Circuit Hero-Two race cars begin to warm up. With 33 cars in 5 classes, they line up according to the qualifying results. Chen Bing-Xiong’s #18 Subaru BRZ is on pole position with a 2 second advantage. Behind him is #1 Tan Hao-De #21 Situ Yong-Xin and #26 Huang Dong-Hong, all driving Honda Civic TCRs. Can Chen Bing-Xiong’s more powerful rear wheel driven BRZ defend its position in the rain, we will find out soon.

At 15:12, the race begins. On lap 1 there are many incidents. Chen Bing-Xiong is passed by Tan Hao-De at turn 2 and third placed starter #21 Situ Yong-Xin drops back to 17th. Huang Dong-Xiong gets up to second place. #9 and #7 hits each other at turn 1 and retire together. The race control shows the yellow flags and the safety car is released. On lap 4, the track is clear and the safety car is withdrawn. There are 5 laps still to go.

On lap 5, the leading car of Tan Hao-De and second placed Chen Bing-Xiong both make mistakes and #26 Huang Dong-Xiong closes up on them. #18 Chen Bing-Xiong has to fight to defend his position and this allows #1 Tan Hao-De to increase his lead to 3 seconds. Situ Yong-Xin makes a lap of 1:59.020 on lap 7 and is up to 6th place from 17th place. On lap 9, a number of cars go off the circuit in the final sector of the lap, race control decides to show the red flag to stop the race. The race ends. According to the order on the circuit, #1 Tan Hao-De wins, #18 Chen Bing-Xiong is second and #62 Kuang Pei-Wen is thid.

After the race, Tan Hao-De said, “The race was really difficult due to poor weather. Chen Bing-Xiong made a poor start and I was able to pass him at turn 3. Then I did a bad lap and Chen caught me, we touched slightly but the car was fine, allowing me to keep the lead.” Chen Bing-Xiong said he was distracted at the start. Then after the safety car intervention there was a chance to close in. But his lack of wet weather racing experience hampered him, as well as the car’s poor setup. When he learned of the 2 seconds gap, he decided to give up the fight and just worked on bringing the car home so as to finish second overall and first in class.