Teamwork Motorsport concluded the 2015 SINOPEC LUBRICANTS China Touring Car Championship (CTCC) on a high note, a win for Sunny Wong and a fighting drive from seventh to fourth from Kevin Pu giving the team much to celebrate at the Beijing FASC Circuit (5-8 November).
Starting with official testing, Teamwork’s Citroen C-Elysees had difficulty generating tyre temperature in the wet and cold conditions, but European Le Mans Series (ELMS) and TCR Asia driver, Kevin Pu, still managed to put his #25 racer inside the top three positions.
A new ‘one-shot-showdown’ qualifying format was implemented for the highly-anticipated CTCC finale in Beijing; each and every driver had one flying lap to set a competitive time and, while wet tyres were still required on the drying track, Teamwork Motorsport had overcome its tyre warm-up issues and Wong consequently qualified second, with Pu in a respectable seventh.
Sunday’s (8 November) race commenced in warmer, damp conditions and race control wisely opted for a rolling start.
The slick-shod field got away cleanly and Wong immediately going in pursuit of the leading Volkswagen Polo, but the short and narrow nature of the Beijing FASC Circuit meant overtaking opportunities were limited, although this didn’t prevent Pu from making good progress.
Both Citroens came into their own as the track continued drying out and Wong was soon bumper-to-bumper with the race-leading VW and unable to find a way past for three laps, until his foe was compromised by a lapped backmarker and an opportunistic last-ditch overtaking move saw the Teamwork Motorsport driver snatch P1.
The VW, on the dirty line out of the last turn, was out-dragged by Wong on the run to the flag and Pu continued to make up positions to finish fourth, to the delight of all concerned with Teamwork Motorsport.
Wong said: “I think luck played a great part in this win. We knew from practice and qualifying that our cars were a little off the pace in the cold and wet, but the race started in slightly warmer and dryer conditions, so that definitely helped. Also the backmarker affected the rhythm of the car in front and created one opportunity for me to overtake on a circuit where it is impossible to pass. It was a great team effort against the cold here, and everybody was having to really think out of the box to warm those tyres in qualifying.”
Kevin added: “This is the first time I’ve race with TeamWork Motorsport’s Citroen. The pace was definitely there and this should be a winning car this weekend. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to learn this car before the race. The weather and track condition were different in practice, qualifying and the race, but I’m still happy with the team’s performance. I just wish I had a little more time to learn this car.”
Wong will enter the Macau Grand Prix Guia Race 2.0T, while four other Teamwork Motorsport drivers, Alex Hui, Paul Poon, Samson Fung and Andre Lo will make appearances in the Macau Road Sport Challenge and CTM Macau Touring Car Cup.
For more information on Teamwork Motorsport, please visit the www.teamworkms.com website, or ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page.