Lucky bet helped Tom Coronel to second in Macau opening race

ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel came second in today’s opening race at Macau. The Dutchman believes he finally found some luck in Macau after he won a casino bet he had placed on his race number.

“Somehow I’ve never found luck on this track,” said the Chevrolet driver. “Last night I was at the Sands casino, I put money on my race number and I won. My friends suggested I’d keep the coins instead of changing them, so they are still in my pocket and I think I found some luck here.”

The Dutchman had to push hard in the second sector, as he realised Honda’s Ryo Michigami was quicker in the faster parts of the circuit, in sectors one and three.

“I had a very good start and then I saw (Ryo) Michigami was very strong in Mandarin. I knew I had to push in the mountain section and I was really on the limit everywhere, because it was my only chance. These are the results I need, especially at the end of the season.”

Coronel is happy he and the team were finally able to extract the performance they want from the outdated Chevrolet RML Cruze.

“The Chevrolet is the oldest piece of metal we see on track. We saw in the last few races we couldn’t find any more performance in the car, but somehow I found speed in the mountain section, so I’m really happy.”