Teamwork Motorsport enjoyed a highly successful weekend at the Shanghai International Circuit after recording back-to-back one-two-three victories in the Hong Kong Touring Car Championship (HTCC) and narrowly missing out on victory in the SINOPEC LUBRICANTS Chinese Touring Car Championship (CTCC) (6-7 June).
The weekend did not get off to the smoothest of starts for all six Teamwork Motorsport drivers, as bad weather and flight traffic control issues in Shanghai saw their flight delayed until the following day, which entail saw the team miss out on vital free practice sessions at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Once at the circuit, CTCC drivers, Sunny Wong and Samuel Hsieh, who would be competing in the 2.0T category this weekend – as it will replace the outgoing 1.6T category as of next season – took to the 4.46km circuit for the remaining free practice sessions, where turbo and tyre punctures hampered any representative running.
Despite being unable to obtain any setup references in free practice, Hsieh was able to position his Citroën C-Elysée on the front row in second position during qualifying, with teammate Wong suffered from brake relate issues and had to settle for tenth position.
With the Volkswagen factory team being its main rival, both Teamwork Motorsport drivers lined-up in their respective grid positions for the first of the race on Sunday (7 June), where Hsieh got a near perfect launch off the line to lead the field through the long sweeping right handed Turn 1.
With constant drizzling of rain dampening track conditions, Hsieh misjudged the track conditions and braked a little too late at Turn 11 and collided with the leading VW, spelling an end to his race due to suspension damage.
Having started from the fifth row, Wong negotiated his way past four of his rivals on the opening tour and continued to show a great turn of pace to knock heavily on the door of a podium finish.
Following the retirement of teammate Hsieh, Wong was promoted up to fourth and onto the tail of the leading three VWs. Biding his time as to when to attack, Wong believed his Citroén’s strengths lay down the circuit’s long straights, when, on lap seven, he propelled himself out of the slipstream of the VWs to ease past into the lead of the race.
However, a left rear puncture the following lap saw Wong relinquish his lead and drop down the field, where he was able to limp home in eighth position.
“I enjoyed the race today. After all the glitches we had throughout the week, the car felt great,” said Wong. “I started in tenth position, so I had to play it safe. Slowly I recognised our cars were fast on the straights, so I worked my way up the field one by one and at one point I was leading the race, but unfortunately a rear puncture shortly after put an end to that. I believe we had a strong chance of finishing on the podium and I am glad to see that our cars are capable of winning.”
Sharing the same circuit, Teamwork Motorsport’s HTCC drivers, Samson Fung, Paul Poon and Andrew Lo, experienced technical glitches in their Suncity-liveried Peugeot RCZs during free practice, but the team were quick to rectify the problems in time for qualifying, where all three drivers dominated to lay claim to the top three positions.
In the weekend’s opening race on Saturday (6 June), all three drivers once again were untouchable and dominated proceedings after getting off the line well and bridging a gap to the rivals to record an emphatic one-two-three and become the first time to do so this season.
The team would then go on to replicate the same outstanding accomplishment the following day in Race 2 to cap a highly positive weekend for the team.
“We didn’t start the race weekend with good momentum with delayed flights and issues during practice, but everything turned out very well after qualifying,” said double race winner, Fung. “I am very glad to have come away with two wins this weekend, but more importantly, my two teammates also finished right behind me. We scored the maximum points this weekend, but we still have work hard in the last two rounds in order to secure a seat in the Macau GP in November.”
Making a guest appearance in the HTCC’s Roadsport Challenge category – a race not limited by technical regulations – was last season’s CTCC driver, Alex Hui.
Running in one of the team’s CTCC Citroën C-Elysées, Hui lined-up on the grid amongst his heavily modified rivals that included Mitsubishi Evos, Caterhams and Aerial Atoms, and went on to finish in second position for both races and top his category’s standings.
For more information on Teamwork Motorsport, please visit the www.teamworkms.com website, or ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page.