Photo: TCR China

Championship leaders Henry Ho and Eurico de Jesus to miss season finale

By

Henry Ho and Eurico de Jesus look set to lose out on the 2018 TCR China Touring Car Championship title just ahead of the season finale at Guangdong, after the MacPro Racing team which run their Honda Civic TCRs was forced to pull its entry due to logistical issues.

The Macanese duo were on course to win their first title this weekend at the rescheduled season finale, though they faced a tough challenge from the Teamwork Motorsport duo of Sunny Wong and Alex Hui, who had closed the points gap to just three points over the last two rounds.

Ho and de Jesus had also both sat out the second round of the season at Ningbo, with André Couto taking two victories for the team, which under the unique championship regulations, still count towards Ho and de Jesus’ points tally.

Teamwork Motorsport pair Hui and Wong now just need to score four points in their Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR over the course of the weekend’s three races in order to secure the 2018 title.

MacPro Racing are unlikely to be threatened in the teams’ championship, with the team holding a 79-point lead over Teamwork Motorsport, though there are 87 points available with Teamwork having now increased their entry to two cars this weekend, adding an Audi RS 3 LMS for a new driver, but would need to finish 1-2 in every race to close the gap.

A fly in the ointment will be the addition of top Chinese driver Ma Qing Hua to the field for Freely Racing, in their Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR. Ma tested the car with builders Romeo Ferraris recently at Vallelunga in Italy, and the Alfa Romeo will also be the joint-lightest car on the grid at 1,265kg along with the Audis.

Champ Motorsport will make its TCR China championship return after a successful outing recently at the Guia Race of Macau, and will be fielding an 2018-specification Audi RS 3 LMS acquired from WRT this weekend.

The Volkswagens will be the heaviest cars, running with 50kg of weight, at a total of 1,315kg. The Honda Civic TCR would have carried the maximum ballast of 60kg, but none are entered for the event.

Guangdong finale timetable

Saturday 29th December
10:50 – Free Practice 1
12:40 – Free Practice 2
15:00 – Qualifying 1
16:05 – Qualifying 2

Sunday 30th December
09:20 – Race 1
13:00 – Race 2
16:15 – Race 3

All times China Standard Time (CST). CET – 7hrs.