Mitchell Cheah wins drama-filled second race in Malaysia

Malaysia’s Mitchell Cheah won the second race of the 2018 TCR Asia Series from ninth on the grid in the Engstler Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, in a race full of incident from the start.

As the lights went out, Jakraphan Davee launched into the lead in the Alphafactory SEAT León, overtaking Nattanid Leewattanavaragul’s Morin Racing SEAT into Turn 1, but Davee soon found himself at the back of the pack as Chariya Nuya launched an attach on the two SEATs at the exit in his Billionaire Boys Racing Honda Civic, spinning Davee around.

There was further drama as Leewattanavaragul then hit the side of Diego Moran’s Volkswagen, with Moran then spinning out at the next corner with terminal damage, which caused the safety car to be deployed.

Race 1 winner Luca Engstler was caught in the melee and lost ground, while Leewattanavaragul returned to the pits with damage, while Nuya continued in the lead ahead of the Volkswagen of Mitchell Cheah.

The race restarted on lap four, with Nuya leading Cheah and R Engineering’s Abdul Kaathir.

Lo Ho in the Maximum Racing Honda soon passed Kaathir’s Honda, while Cheah took the lead from Nuya and began to pull away in the Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.

Nuya was soon under threat from Lo’s Honda Civic, while Luca Engstler was making quick progress after dropping down the field and passed three cars on the first lap after the restart to move up to sixth.

Engstler then overtook the SEAT of Wong Wong Kiang Kuan on lap five and was up to fifth, and following the three-Honda battle between Nuya, Lo and Kaathir.

Engstler despatched Kaathir’s green Honda down into Turn 1 for fourth, while Nuya was continuing to hold off Lo for second.

Nuya then went wide at the end of lap six and dropped out of second and all the way down to tenth, with Lo now having to defend against Engstler’s Volkswagen, while Cheah had now pulled out a massive lead in front.

Lo managed to hold off Engstler in a close-fight for the remainder of the race, with Cheah going on to win the race by ten seconds in his Volkswagen Golf.

The next round of the TCR Asia Series takes place on 3rd June at the Buriram International Circuit in Thailand.