11 Jan 2016 Circuit Hero 500km Endurance Race: Audi misses empty goal as Lamborghini records record breaking win
10 January 2015, on a rather gloomy day at Zhuhai International Circuit, the no. 38 Lamborghini Huracan of StarSpeed Racing broke the distance record of the Circuit Hero 500km Endurance Race to take race victory, while race long rival, the no. 28 Audi R8 of Absolute Racing broke down within sight of the chequered flag.
The StarSpeed Racing duo of Xie Jia-Qing and Zhang Jun finished the race having completed 101 laps, which is equal to 434.3km, beating the previous record set by Frank Yu/Darryl O'Young in their Ford GT in 2012 by 5 laps.
The race received 44 entries with a total of 114 drivers taking part. Zhuhai International Circuit arranged for LeTV to broadcast the race live on LeTV Sports, LeTV Super TV and LeTV video via three platforms. This is the first time a Chinese national media organization has broadcast an endurance race from start to finish live, allowing not just the Chinese race fans but also the race fans worldwide to enjoy the race. In addition, one of the commentators Li Peng-Yu visits various team pits during the race for live interviews with the drivers, enhancing the enjoyment of the viewers.
At the start of the race, the #28 Audi R8 makes a slow start from pole position, not only allowing the #38 Lamborghini Huracan to take the lead but the #168 Modena Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 into second place. The Lamborghini, Porsche and Audi begin to move away from the rest of the field.
After 3 laps the leaders already begin to lap backmarkers. #38 makes a early fastest lap of 1:37.741, it seems the driver and car are in good condition. But #88 Audi R8 slows on lap 5 and returns to the pits for repairs. The second place #168 Porsche makes an attempt on the race lead on lap 7 at turn 9, but it loses control and ends up in the sand trap at the exit of the corner. Fortunately it can be extricated and it returns to the pits for repairs. But it loses a lot of time and returns to the race at the very back.
In class A, #777 Caterham and #98 Lotus are in 5th and 6th places over all respectively. In class D, run soley for Sciroccos, #115 and #106 lead the class and are in 14th and 15th places. #85 Honda DC5 leads class D while class C is lead by the #21 Honda Civic.
On lap 8, #23 spins at T7. The #88 Audi R8 finishes its repairs and re-joins the race, but it stops immediately after the pit exit. Both #23 and #88 can resume, but #88 Audi R8 returns to the pits again.
At T4 two cars collides, they are class B leader #85 Honda DC5 and #16 Ford Focus. The driver of #85 quickly leaves the car for cover as his car is parked in a dangerous position. The marshals waves double yellow flags to warn oncoming drivers. In class B #66 now takes over the lead. #16 will have to retire from the race.
On lap 23, #28 Audi R8 begins to attack #38 Lamborghini Huracan and passes it at turn 7. But the #38 Lamborghini does not give up easily and tries to take the lead back. Both drivers run hard and at a fast pace, but the driver limit of 45 minutes per stint is almost up, so both teams should be calling both cars in to the pits soon. Both cars pit on lap 26, as well as many other teams, as the maximum driving time is up, the pit lane is full of activity.
#38 Lamborghini makes a quicker stop and gets away more than 10 seconds faster than the #28 Audi. In class A #777 Caterham leads the #98 Lotus by about 20 seconds.
At turn 1, one of the Seat Leons fails to brake for the corner and ends up in the sand trap, while at turn 14, #13 Polo also spins around. Both cars are able to continue. The #168 Porsche is up to 13th place from last place, after its earlier misadventure.
#28 Audi by now has retaken the lead, #38 Lamborghini has dropped back by 14 seconds, it maybe down the #38 driver not yet finding his rhythm. By now, the only other car on the lead lap is #23 Radical SR8. Meanwhile, class C is led by #9 Li Yong-Hao/Zhao Guo-Xiang.
At the hour mark, #88 Audi R8 finally gives up. The driver said they still have to work on smoothing out the edges. They will return for the Circuit Hero races of the Pan Delta Super Racing Festival later this year. #168 Porsche is back in the pits again for a pit stop. It seems the team plans to separate the race into 6 half hour stints, which maybe more time consuming than the race leaders who are on 4 stints.
The #28 Audi laps the #23 Radical SR8, so now only the #38 Lamborghini remains on the lead lap. Soon after the #23 Radical stops in the sand trap at T11, but recovers to returns to the pits. In the pits it is quite clear the car has been involved in an altercation. The team performs some emergency repairs to put the car back on the track. #36 Porsche is running in third place but two laps down.
The race leading #28 Audi is running steadily, that means Frank Yu maybe able to repeat his 2012 race victory. #178 Radical SR3 runs into the sand trap at T11, very similar to what happened to the #23 car. With the marshals help the car is able to recover.
On lap 51, just before half distance, #38 Lamborghini pits to refuel and change driver, hoping to regain the lead with a slightly different strategy.
One lap later the #28 Audi pits, too. When the two cars have returned to the race track, the #28 Audi leads the #38 Lambo by about 16 seconds. Judging by their performances both cars will have to pit one more time before the end of the race. The #168 Porsche, now up to a very good 5th place, pits again on lap 59.
Class A is still lead by the #777 Caterham. Class B leader is #77 Honda FD2 while the fastest car in class C is the #9 Peugeot.
At the two hours mark, the #38 Lamborghini begins to catch the #28 Audi once again. The gap between them is down to 9 seconds. The #30 Radical SR3 catches fire at the pit entry, the driver quickly gets away while fire marshals come with fire extinguishers to put out the fire. At the same time #23 Radical SR8 has another incident at turn 11.
70 laps gone, with the #168 Porsche as a blocker, the #38 Lamborghini challenges the #28 Audi for the lead. The 5 laps down #168 Porsche is very quick and the #28 Audi is not able to lap it quickly, allowing the #38 Lamborghini to close in. The two cars begin a battle for the lead position. If the #38 car can take the lead and build up some distance between itself and the #28 Audi, then it might have a good chance of winning after the last round of pit stops. But the two cars are very close on performance and overtaking is not easy. Not long after it is time for the final pit stops. The #38 Lamborghini pits first and the #28 Audi pits a lap later. This time the #28 Audi has a much faster stop and greatly increases its lead. With 40 minutes of the race remaining, the #28 Audi leads the #38 Lamborghini by 1 min 30 seconds. The hopes of the #38 Lambo appears to be gone. Meanwhile #12 Suzuki Swift has an accident at T12 and needs to be towed away. The #29 TTX slows down also.
With half an hour of the race time to go, the previously expected rain has not materialized. Now the order is #28, #38, and #36. Class A continues to be led by the #777 Caterham, while #77 Honda FD2 leads class B. A Honda Civic leads the class in class C and class D leader is the #115.
In the final 7 minutes, the leading #28 suddenly begins to slow, it finally breaks down completely at T10 on lap 99. This allows the #38 Lamborghini to take the lead. Nobody could expect such dramatic development in the final moments of the race. In the end the #38 Lamborghini Huracan of Xie Jia-Qing and Zhang Jun wins the race by completing 101 laps, equalling 434.3 km, a new distance record for this race. When the winner returns to the parc ferme, the two drivers happily embrace each other. Xie Rong-Jian and Antares Au finishes in second place in their Porsche. The #168 Porsche GT3 of John Shen/Wayne Shen ran strongly after its early problems and finished third in Open class. Frank Yu of #28 confirmed that his Audi R8 suffered a gearbox problem.
Open class winner Xie Jia-Qing and Zhang Jun are clearly overjoyed about winning the race. "We did not race very hard throughout, but we wanted to preserve the car. Near the end we thought it was all over, but you never know. We are very very happy."
Class A winner, BlackArts Racing driver Bill O Brien said,"Our new team was just established last year, so we are very happy to take this win so soon."
Class B winner is #6 Chen Xi/Liang Xin-Rong/He Hong-Xi/Su Ying-Kang. They said,"We are Soon Veng Racing and we are a team of drivers from Macau and Hong Kong. We are very thankful for the team s support." Soon Veng Racing's Liang Xin-Rong add this title to the Roadsport Race he won last November in Macau.
Race Results:
| Class | Order | No. | Drivers |
|
A |
1 | 777 | Bill O Brien /Peter Olson/Maxx Ebenal |
| 2 | 98 | Huang Yi-Bao/Chan/Webb/Acosta | |
| 3 | 7 | Yang Xi/Rodolfo Avila | |
| 4 | 90 | Ding Shan/Wei Jia/Li Zhi | |
| 5 | 8 | Thomas Ng/Samuel Law/Keith Luk | |
| B |
1 | 6 | Chen Xi/ Liang Xin-Rong/He Hong-Xi/ Su Ying-Kang |
| 2 | 77 | Huang Bin/Zhang De-Xiang/Li De-Rong | |
| 3 | 66 | Huang Gui-Hua/Qiu Lun-Xin/Badaraco/Chen Yong-Da | |
| 4 | 75 | Chen Yong-shao/Zhang Zhi-Cheng/Wen Ding-Yu | |
| 5 | 5 | Liu Yang/Sun Qiang | |
| C |
1 | 21 | Shu/Sin/Chao/Peng |
| 2 | 9 | Li Yong-Han/Zhao Guo-Xiang | |
| 3 | 10 | Qiu Kai-Wen/Lu Xiao-Feng | |
| 4 | 61 | Hu Nan/Yang Han-Da/He Xiao-Le | |
| 5 | 22 | Li Zhuo-Jie/Li Jun-Jie | |
| D |
1 | 115 | Chen Chun Hua/Chang Wei Chung/Lee Yen Chieh |
| 2 | 101 | Vincent Wong/Clement Li/David Lau | |
| 3 | 103 | Chris Li/Mung Hon Ting Jackie | |
| Open |
1 | 38 | Xie Jia-Qing/Zhang Jun |
| 2 | 36 | Kevin Tse/Antares Au | |
| 3 | 168 |
John Shen/Wayne Shen |
|
| 4 | 178 | Xu Wei/Song Bo | |
| 5 | 87 | Chen Qi/Chen Rui |