Photo: TCR Media

Kantadhee Kusiri bounces back to win Yeongam Race 1

Kantadhee Kusiri managed to recover after a troubled start to the race to win on his TCR Asia Series return at Yeongam Korea International Circuit, winning the race in the Viper Niza Racing Cupra TCR ahead of Luca Engstler’s Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR and Lo Sze Ho’s Maximum Racing Honda Civic Type R FK2 TCR.

Kusiri had a sluggish getaway and was side-by-side with Engstler into Turn 1, with the two drivers making contact, with Engstler still holding on to lead while Kusiri dropped to fourth behind the fast-starting Lo and Mitchell Cheah’s Volkswagen.

Lo had catapulted from ninth to second in his Honda Civic, but he was quickly passed by Cheah’s Volkswagen, as the Malaysian driver started to close on team-mate Engstler.

Cheah’s charge ended on lap two however after he made a mistake at Turn 9 and slid wide, falling to fifth.

Kusiri quickly passed Lo’s Honda and began closing up on Engstler, while also on lap two Andrew Kim assumed the lead of the TCR Korea series field in his BrandNew Volkswagen, after passing Cho Hoon Hyun’s Indigo Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR.

Kusiri caught Engstler on lap four, and with superior pace quickly dispatched the German and began building a lead, while TCR Asia points leader Cheah recovered to fourth overall after passing Kim’s car at Turn 1 at the start of lap six.

Behind Kim, late entrant Alex Hui, who’d missed all practice and qualifying and had made his way up to sixth, was holding off a train of cars, but eventually was passed by Kelvin Wong’s Elegant Racing Cupra on lap nine.

On lap ten, Lo’s Honda dropped down the order and entered the pits, while Kim repassed Cheah’s Volkswagen at the start of lap 11 and was now up to third overall in his BrandNew Volkswagen.

Cheah also headed into the pits and into retirement, now promoting Alex Hui’s Volkswagen to fifth.

Kusiri went on to win the race by over ten seconds ahead of Engstler, with Andrew Kim completing the podium and winning in the TCR Korea series category.

Alex Hui managed to pass Kelvin Wong’s Elegant Cupra on the final lap to claim fourth overall, with Wong’s team-mate Alex Liu recovering to sixth after stalling at the start.

The high number of retirements meant just 11 cars made the finish, and with Luca Engstler picking maximum points for the victory, the German moves into the lead of the TCR Asia standings ahead of team-mate Mitchell Cheah heading into the day’s second race which starts at 14:00 local time (07:00 CEST).