The fleet of Suncity Racing Peugeot RCZs continued their domination in Rounds 3 and 4 of the Hong Kong Touring Car Championship (HTCC), once again filling the podium spots, while Teamwork Motorsport’s Citroen C-Elysee showed well on its maiden appearance in the 2016 Roadsport Challenge.
Free practice was testing for Suncity Racing, as heavy rain from the previous night made for tricky track conditions and an optimised setup was hard to find.
Mechanical hiccups on the Citroen curtailed Alex Hui’s running in practice, but the Guangdong International Circuit dried up extensively during the build-up to qualifying and dry setups were applied to all cars.
The #12 Suncity Racing RCZ of Alex Fung could be found at the top of the timing screens after only a few flying laps and the HTCC rookie kept a stranglehold on P1 in the 1.6T division until the chequered flag to secure his first career pole position.
Right behind Alex Fung was Samuel Hsieh and Paul Poon, but Samson Fung was sidelined by illness and therefore had to start the races from the back of the grid.
Alex Hui, meanwhile, made his first appearance of 2016 in the Roadsport Challenge and placed his Citroen in fourth.
The opening encounter of the HTCC weekend – Round 3 – started without any drama and Alex Fung held on to his lead. A few laps passed and Hsieh lost pace, but Poon and Samson Fung were quick to pass their teammate and shadowed Alex Fung to his maiden lights-to-flag victory. D
In the Roadsport Challenge, Alex Hui pushed his China Touring Car Championship specification Citroen hard to compete with his high-powered rivals until an electronic issue brought his race to a premature halt
Round 4 the following day (Sunday 4 April) turned into something of a civil war, as Poon quickly dispatched Alex Fung and Samson Fung showed no mercy to his son by passing him and going in pursuit of the new race leader.
The race encompassed a lot of dicing between Poon and Samson Fung in the first two positions, as well as the third and fourth-placed cars of Alex Fung and Hsieh, but the battles were clean and the order remained the same at the flag.
Poon said: “I performed well today. I looked into my rear-view mirrors than out of the windscreen in race two, with Samson (Fung) behind me for the entire race, but I held him back!”
For Alex Hui, Round 4 was trouble-free but his Citroen was unable to match the Mitsubishi EVOs for power. Nevertheless, the Chinese racer utilised his car’s nimbleness through the GIC’s corners to regain lost ground and narrowly missed out on a podium in fourth.
Rounds 5 and 6 of the 2016 Hong Kong Touring Car Championship (HTCC) will also be held at the Guangdong International Circuit on 30 April-1 May, just prior to the TCR Asia Series and China Touring Car Championship (CTCC) season-openers.