09 May 2014 Formula Masters China Series Set for Spectacular Second Season
(Beijing, April 30, 2014) Formula Masters China Series (FMCS), China and Asia’s leading international junior single-seater championship is set for a spectacular second season as an exciting international field of 19fledging talents from across China, Asia, India and New Zealand hone their motorsport skills over 18 races at some of the region’s premier circuits.
Running within the championship is the Star Racing Academy (SRA), the first junior single-seater driver development programme of its kind dedicated to developing China’s most promising talent. This season SRA drivers will join FMCS teams, in addition to taking part in the comprehensive SRA trainingprogramme both on and off the track.
SRA driver Bao Jin Long, who joins new FMCS team Zen Motorsport, has a busy season ahead as he will also contest the region’s premier sportscar championship, the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, with Team Synsanly, the team with whom he won last year’s Scirocco R-Cup China championship.
Bao is one of two drivers who will compete in both FMCS and one of the Volkswagen Group China’s sportscar series in 2014, with Hong Kong’s Matthew Solomon of Eurasia Motorsport entered in the Audi R8 LMS Cup with Audi Hong Kong. Solomonfinished fifth in last year’s debut FMCS season and returns as the highest-finishing driver, the 18-year-old looking to seal the 2014 FMCS championship title this time around.
Solomon’s team mate Pu Jun Jin, who won the 2013 FMCS Best Chinese Driver Trophy, returns for a second season with Eurasia Motorsport, while SRA driver Yuan Bo joins the team this year.
New SRA driver Hua Miao joinsBao at Zen Motorsport as do Hong Kong driver Ronald Wu, 20, and China’s Yin Hai Tao, both returning to FMCS for a second season.
FMCS welcomes several exciting new drivers to the series this year, including India’s AkhilRabindra at Meco Motorsport, selected last year to be part of the prestigious FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy. Two young Indonesian drivers,DarmaMangkuluhurHutomo (15) and Yasuo Senna Iriawan (17), will both make their FMCS debuts with new teamHumpuss Junior Racing Team. Representing Japan is YuyaMotojimaof Super License, while Sean Hudspeth (20) flies the flag for Singapore as he joins the four-car Eurasia team.
2013 FMCS Team Trophy winners Meritus GP’s squadincludes Indonesian Andersen Martono (17), who competed in six FMCS races last year, and a pair of series debutants from South Africa, 18-year-old Aston Hareand Mandla Mdakane (21).
South African Matthew Swanepoel (19) joins FMCS after winning the Asia Cup in 2013. He will be joined at Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG by fellow newcomer James Munro, 16, of New Zealand and 22-year old Briton Dan Wells, who competed in four FMCS races last year, finishing second in the FMCS Macau Challenge at the Macau Grand Prix.
“We are delighted to welcome a diverse, talented and passionate group of young drivers to the Formula Masters China Series’ 2014 season,” said Dominic Lyncker, Motorsport Director, Volkswagen Group China. “We are excited to have such a strong international field, and look forward to the intense on-track competition that we will undoubtedly witness all season long.”
Launched in 2013 by Volkswagen Group China as a platform for the next generation of Chinese and Asian motorsport heroes to establish a comprehensive motorsport foundation, after just a single season FMCS has already seen itsdriversprogress to more advance competition, including series within the Volkswagen Group China motorsport family.
Fundamental to the series is the opportunity to experience a variety of tracks across China and Asia, both to gain crucial knowledge of the circuits but also to teach drivers to adapt to different racing conditions. The season begins May 9-11 with three races at the Zhuhai International Circuit in China’s Pan Delta Region. Two weeks later the FMCS heads to China’s Formula 1 track, the Shanghai International Circuit for Races 4-6. The Series then heads to South Korea where Races 7-9 at the InjeSpeedium are sure to be hotly contested on the technical track’s changing elevations and blind corners. August sees FMCS compete at a second Formula 1 circuit, this time in the searing heat and humidity of Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit. A further three races in Zhuhai in September are followed by the season finale in Shanghai as part of the Sports Car Champions Festival.
All drivers compete in identical TATUUS FA010 single seater cars, with minimal adjustments permitted, ensuring that it is talent that shines and not financial advantage.
The 2014 FMCS season gets underway on May 9-11 at the Zhuhai International Circuit in China’s Pearl River Delta Region.
Provisional Entry List
| No. | Driver | Team |
| 6 | BAO Jin Long (CHN) | Zen Motorsport |
| 7 | Ronald WU (CHN) | Zen Motorsport |
| 8 | Darma Mangkuluhur HUTOMO (INA) | Humpuss Junior Racing Team |
| 10 | Akhil RABINDRA (IND) | Meco Motorsport |
| 11 | HUA Miao (CHN) | Zen Motorsport |
| 15 | Yuya MOTOJIMA (JPN) | Super License |
| 16 | Dan WELLS (GBR) | Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG |
| 17 | PU Jun Jin (CHN) | Eurasia Motorsport |
| 18 | YUAN Bo (CHN) | Eurasia Motorsport |
| 19 | Matthew SOLOMON (CHN) | Eurasia Motorsport |
| 20 | Sean HUDSPETH (SIN) | Eurasia Motorsport |
| 29 | YIN Hai Tao (CHN) | Zen Motorsport |
| 36 | Yasuo Senna IRIAWAN (INA) | Humpuss Junior Racing Team |
| 38 | Aston HARE (RSA) | Meritus GP |
| 40 | James MUNRO (NZL) | Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG |
| 49 | Matthew SWANEPOEL (RSA) | Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG |
| 68 | Mandla MDAKANE (RSA) | Meritus GP |
| 78 | TBC | Meritus GP |
| 88 | Andersen MARTONO (INA) | Meritus GP |