Photo:

Leo Yi Hong Li scores Yancheng win, as title battle is down to just three points

By

Leo Yi Hong Li took his second win of the 2015 China Touring Car Championship at the Yancheng circuit for Kia Racing, with the Dongfeng Honda pair of Henry Ho and Martin Xie finishing second and third, with Ho, Kia’s Jason Zhang and Changan Ford’s Andy Yan now just separated by three points heading to the season finale.

At the start, pole-sitter Martin Xie led the way with Leo Yi and Changan Ford FRD driver Gao Hua Yang closely behind. Rainey He was the best qualifying Ford driver in third, but was also the first retirement of the race after failing to get away from the grid.

Xie lost the lead of the race to the Kia K3S of Leo Yi on lap five, who began to pull away from the Honda driver.

The other Kia K3S of Larry Lin Le Feng, competing to TCR specifications, retired after a mechanical problem after half distance.

Henry Ho managed to work his way up to third from tenth on the grid, critical for his championship aspirations, while a fierce battle between Kia’s Jim Ka To and Changan Ford’s Andy Yan allowed the other Kia of Jason Zhang and Ford of Gao Hua Yang to get ahead of them.

Jim and Yan came together on lap 13, which saw the Kia driver excluded from the race.

Ho overtook team-mate Xie for second on lap 21, with title rivals Zhang finishing fourth and Yan fifth, which means Yan now heads to the final round with 55 points, just three ahead of Zhang and Ho tied in second place.

In the Super Production Cup class, Teamwork Motorsport’ Alex Hui clinched victory after taking the lead from Shanghai VW 333 Racing’s Jiang Tengyi on lap two and pulling away to win by just under two seconds. Jiang and Hui’s Teamwork team-mate Sunny Wong completed the podium, while VW’s Zhang Zhen Dong finished fourth and still leads the standings by just three points ahead of team-mate Wang Rue, his only rival for the title.

The season finale takes place on November 8th at the Beijing FASC circuit.