18 Mar 2017 Many uncertainties as men and women race together (Circuit Hero-Three Qualifying)

At 17:10 on 18 March, Pan Delta’s final session of the first day commences. Circuit Hero-Three qualifying session begins now. As the number one grassroot race of Pan Delta, Circuit Hero-Three is renowened for its low entry threshold and budget. The cars entered are such as Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Toyota Vitz, Nissan Sunny, Mitsubishi Lancer…etc. Although the entry threshold is low and high level of tuning is not allowed, this race is still entered by top local drivers. “Baldy” He Wei-Hang is driving a Toyota Yaris. Han Ying-Fu has entered a Peugeot and Lin Zhe is driving a Honda Fit. All are veterans of the Pan Delta arena. With limited modifications and capacity, these old friends are fighting for victory on driver skill alone. This is another new meaning given to Circuit Hero-Three by these veterans.

For this year, Circuit Hero-Three has added another focus. Two drivers will need to share a car and there are male-female class as well as female-female class. In the all female class, Zhao Yi-Na and Peng Ya-Hong are from Chengdu and Chongqing respectively, they represent the improving motorsport industry of Western China. Pan Delta Circuit Hero-Three is providing more and more opportunities for drivers to race. There are 18 cars for this race. At the same time the teams are being tested. Qualifying begins under cloudy but rainless conditions.

#88 Lin Wei-Hong/Jerome Badaraco take their Chevrolet Cruze to 1:54.260 to set the ball rolling. #16 Gary Sham/Liu Qi replies with a 1:54.124 in their Peugeot RCZ. The rest of the field are unable to get under 2 minutes. Drivers slowly find their forms and #70 Hu Qi-Ming/Tan Yun take their Honda Fit to third place with a time of 1:57.463.

At 17:31 qualifying is over. The final pole position winner is #16 Peugeot RCZ with a time of 1:54.124. Second is #88 Chevrolet Cruze, time 1:54.260. The first two are very close on times. #70 Tan Qi-Ming/Tan Yun are third. The battle for top honours tomorrow can be expected to be very fierce. They are over 3 seconds faster than the 3rd placed team. It will be an interesting race tomorrow.