Several changes ahead for this weekend’s round of the CTCC at Guangdong

The China Touring Car Championship heads to the Guangdong International Circuit this weekend in China for the fifth round of the 2016 season, with a number of driver changes as well as a key the team move with Haima Z1 Racing switching from Super Cup 1.6T to 2.0T.

Haima Z1 Racing will join BAIC Senova as the second Chinese manufacturer in the class with the upgraded Haima M6 2.0 turbocharged cars, and will run Swedish touring car expert Tomas Engström alongside their regular contingent.

The Changan Ford FRD team, which leads both the manufacturers’ and drivers’ standings with Rainey He in the lead by 13 points over Volkswagen’s Zhang Zhen Dong. The team will field Gua Hua Yang in place of Dan Wells, with the wild card quota reduced to three events, meaning the Briton’s season is already over.

The Shanghai VW 333 Racing team will enter Lo Ka Chun in one of their Lamando GTSs in the car occasionally driven by Han Han, alongside regulars Jiang Tengyi, Zhang Zhen Dong and Wang Rue. British driver Adam Morgan is due some further outings with the team after a strong showing in South Korea, but has his regular commitments in the British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham this weekend.

With Haima Z1 Racing leaving the 1.6T class, the sole competitors remaining are the factory Kia and Honda teams. Martin Xie of the DOngfeng Honda Racing Team leads the championship on 128 points, six ahead of Kia’s Jason Zhang, while Kia lead the manufacturers’ championship by 18 points over Honda.

The Mazda-equipped Ruizi MZ Racing team have confirmed their return to bolster the class, running two Mazda 6s for Chen Zao and Sun Zheng.

Qualifying takes place at 14:50 (2.0T) and 15:30 CST (1.6T) on Saturday 27th August.