06 Dec 2020 Withstanding the pressure – Yang Bai-Jie takes ZMA Touring Car Class A victory
Zhuhai International Circuit
On 5-6 December, 2020 ZMA Club Race season finale is held at Zhuhai International Circuit.
Qualifying
On 6 December, ZMA Touring Car Class A race is officially held. Bright sunshine and cool weather is good for drivers looking to perform. The powerful machines will fight for top honours. In the end, STS Motorsport Crew #28 Yang Bai-Jie takes ZMA Touring Car Class A overall victory with a rather big margin.
In the qualifying session in the morning, all drivers perform well. In the 20 minutes session, STS Motorsport Crew #28 Yang Bai-Jie sets the fastest lap of 1:35.684, taking pole position by 1.124 seconds over the second placed driver.
Main Race
At 2:50 in the afternoon, ZMA Touring Car Class A race welcomes its last race of the season. The race distance is 15 laps and there are 13 drivers taking part. All race cars are equipped with Pirelli tyres. The race uses a rolling start, #86 Chen Yi-Nian makes a good start to pull himself up to second place at T1, right behind pole starter Yang Bai-Jie.
After one lap, #28 Yang Bai-Jie has only a small lead of 0.271 second. But he soon begins to pick up his pace and grows his lead to 1.983 seconds. In A5 class, the top 3 are in fierce competition, #15 Tian Kai passes #8 Liang Yong-Zhao for the class lead.
At half distance, #28 Yang Bai-Jie has already extended his lead. #6 Zhang Yu-Quan also successfully passes Chen Yi-Nian for second place overall. He then begins to charge after race leader #28 Yang Bai-Jie.
On lap 10, #18 Cheng Chun-Hua has a mechanical problem and retires his car from A6 class. At the same time #6 Zhang Yu-Quan has closes on the race leader, with the gap down to just 1.179 second.
On the final two laps, #6 Zhang Yu-Quan tries to attack #28 Yang Bai-Jie and makes a move at T9, but it was not successful. In the end, affected by backmarkers, #6 Zhang Yu-Quan is unable to pass and STS Motorsport Crew #28 Yang Bai-Jie takes the win. His teammates #6 Zhang Yu-Quan and #86 Chen Yi-Nian finish in second and third places.
Top 3 in various classes
In the various classes, A3 class top 3 are dominated by STS Motorsport Crew’s trio #28 Yang Bai-Jie, #6 Zhang Yu-Quan and #86 Chen Yi-Nian; A5 class top 3 are #15 Tian Kai, Shaanxi Tianshi Racing #8 Liang Yong-Zhao and TPR Racing #29 Huang Zi-Jun; A6 class top 3 are: Sinsoku Oil Racing #2 Li Wei-Cong, Foshan Xiongji Racing #18 Cheng Chun-Hua and Sinsoku Oil #1 Ye Guang-Wen; A7 class winner is Shaanxi Tianshi Racing #10 Gong Wei.
Post Race Interviews
After the race, overall winner #28 Yang Bai-Jie said, “Today we have great weather, the track conditions are much better than the last race, so I am on good form. But on the last two laps I was under a lot of pressure, there were many backmarkers, that allowed the car behind to catch up. But I managed to overcome this pressure and take the win. This year’s race season is over. For next year’s Pan Delta series I look forward to achieving good results.”
1st runner’s up Zhang Yu-Quan said, “Before the race I just wanted to complete it without incidents. In the actual race itself I thought I managed to keep a good rhythm, but there were a lot of backmarkers so there was no chance to challenge for my teammate’s lead. Overall I am quite satisfied with my own performance, hopefully next year I can achieve better results.”
2nd runner’s up Chen Yi-Nian said, “At the start I had a good rhythm, but later on I found that my tyres and brake pads overheated, so I had to slow down. It is a pity that I had to settle for third place.”