Sunny Wong and Alex Hui win washed-out Ningbo Race 3
Sunny Wong and Alex Hui have won the final race of the weekend at Ningbo International Speedpark for Teamwork Motorsport, in a chaotic race which wiped out half the diminutive field in just ten laps.
The reversed grid draw put André Couto third on the grid in his MacPro Racing Honda, and the Macanese was into the lead before they even got to the first corner and was pulling out a margin over Zhu Zhen Yu’s CUS Team Volkswagen, with Li Lin’s Leo Racing Volkswagen fourth and Sunny Wong in the Teamwork Volkswagen right behind him.
Wong managed to pass Li after five laps and began to close on Zhu’s Golf GTI TCR, when the rain began to fall on the circuit after seven laps, with Couto backing off considerably, which allowed both Zhu and Wong through into first and second.
As the rain picked up intensity, Couto dived into the pits for wet tyres before the pit stop window opened, while Zhu and Wong tried to brave it out until the 25 minutes were up.
This didn’t pay off for Zhu, as the two drivers came to the main straight at the end of lap nine and discovered the track was practically flooded.
Both drivers narrowly missed the barriers at the final corner, but heading down the main straight to start lap ten, both cars aquaplaned straight off the track, with Zhu slamming into the barriers head-on, destroying his Golf.
Wong was luckier as he managed to not to collide with anything and slipped into the gravel trap. The Hong Kong driver powered up his car and returned to the track, gingerly creeping around the circuit and still in the lead of the race.
The race was then red-flagged with several plans to restart it signalled, but all were called off.
Wong therefore is classed as the winner of the race ahead of the MacPro Racing Honda of Tang You Xi, with Zhu Zhen Yu classified in third on countback after the red flag.
Whether full of half points will be awarded is unclear as the race clock continued to count down, though technically the race was red-flagged well before 75% distance.
The next round of the championship is again at the Ningbo International Speedpark, sharing with the CTCC and World Touring Car Cup on September 29th-30th.
