Photo: Procar

Cai Yue wins on his CTCC debut for Changan Ford team

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Cai Yue took victory on his China Touring Car Championship debut in the Super Cup 2.0T class, finishing ahead of the two BAIC Senova D60s of David Zhu and Juan Carlos Zhu.

Cai took the lead from pole-sitter Juan Carlos Zhu in the early phase of the race and went on to take a comfortable victory by almost five seconds, with Juan Carlos Zhu falling behind team-mate and brother David during the later stages.

Although Cai had a good run, his Changan Ford FRD team-mates struggled, with Andy Yan the best-placed driver in tenth, with Rainey He 12th and Martin Cao 15th.

Behind the top three, Tomas Engström finished fourth in the Haima Z1 Racing M6 2.0T, just ahead of the UK’s Adam Morgan, who was the top Shanghai VW 333 Racing Volkswagen Lamando driver, keeping at bay the privateer Citroën C-Elysée of Sunny Wong, with Haima’s Chen Xu and the two Volkswagens of Zhang Zhen Dong and Jiang Tengyi behind.

Rob Huff, making his first appearance in the CTCC, finished down in 16th, with the WTCC front-runner competing in an out-of-date Senova D60 with an older specification engine.

Rainey He continues to lead in the championship standings, now six points clear of Ford team-mate Andy Yan, who is two clear of Martin Cao, with the Volkswagen of Zhang Zhen Dong their closest rival in fourth, a further eight points behind.

The reversed grid Race 2 takes place at 12:10 CST on Sunday.