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RML surprised with Beijing success

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Touring car powerhouse RML are surprised with the success their Chevrolet Cruze obtained in Beijing. The cars built by the British company added a win and a further podium to their total, both with ROAL Motorsport Cruzes, with Tom Chilton even scoring a rather unexpected pole position at the Chinese track before going on to win Race 1.

Head of Design Mark Way spoke out his surprise after the performances of the Cruzes crushed the opposition in the first race:“We had an incredible weekend in Beijing with pole position, two cars in the top five shootout and the first non-Citroen feature race win”, said Way. “Honestly, I was not expecting the performance upgrades to show in Beijing, given the characteristics of the circuit against the strengths of the other cars.  Traditionally the Cruze has not particularly favoured tight, twisting tracks such as this one, so Tom’s surprise with his pole position was not unjustified! But it’s possible the upgrades were doing more than we anticipated.”

Tom Coronel’s podium finish as well as good performances from Gianni Morbidelli completed a positive weekend for the RML-built cars. Way was quick to point out that Shanghai could be a different story, also due to the extra compensation weight imposed for the Cruzes ahead of the second Chinese event of the championship:“With such a strong performance last weekend, of course we have additional success ballast. Honda will also lose some weight going into Shanghai which inevitably makes the job for the Cruze teams that bit more difficult.”

Mark Way is still confident that the good performances will continue:”It certainly seems we have made a step forward and all being well, progress will continue. No doubt we need to fine tune the set up to get the best from the new parts, but we eagerly await Shanghai to see if this translates, in spite of the extra ballast.”

The Chevrolet Cruze RML was the only non-Citroën car to win a race this year until Race 2 in Beijing, when Rob Huff gave Lada their first ever win in the championship.