A puncture and engine misfire thwarted Teamwork Motosport’s bid for a race victory and double podium in the SINOPEC LUBRICANTS China Touring Car Championship (CTCC) at the team’s home Guangdong International Circuit (GIC) (15-16 August).
Teamwork Motorsport headed to the GIC full of confidence that its mid-season upgrades would yield success, and things could not have got off to a better start with Sunny Wong dominating proceedings and topping the timesheets with a comfortable gap to the rest of the field during a dry free practice.
Conditions deteriorated for qualifying on Saturday (15 August), but Wong once again topped the timesheets, as teething problems for birthday boy Alex Hui saw him position himself on the third row in sixth position
Unfortunately, Teamwork was unable to carry its form into the race. A near-perfect start saw Wong pull clear of the chasing Volkswagen Polo and a race win looked to be on the cards.
However, Wong was handed a drive-through penalty for being out of position on the starting grid. With his penalty served, Wong continued the chase and, by the conclusion of lap ten, was up to an impressive third position and closing on the second-placed VW, only for a puncture to send him stage left into the gravel trap.
Hui, meanwhile, had several new upgrades fitted to his Citroen C-Elysee and certainly had the pace to finish on the podium. He was quick to latch onto the tail of the lead VW pairing but bided his time and pulled off a superb overtake, before a misfire forced him to retire to the pits.
“It was a big slap in our faces this weekend,” said Hui. “Our cars were fast and, although I started sixth, I knew I had the pace to catch up. Soon after the race start I heard from the radio that Sunny (Wong) was given a drive-through and I felt like I sunk to the bottom of the sea. I told myself to calm down because I still had the pace to make it on the podium. However, soon after my car developed its own problems and I simply had to retire. Now that myself, Samuel (Hsieh) and Sunny have all scored pole positions, we just need to convert them into wins. I am confident that we can do it very soon.”
For more information on Teamwork Motorsport, please visit the www.teamworkms.com website, or ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page.