Clio Cup China series China debut

For Immediate Distribution Aug 25 , 2009

The renowned Clio Cup race from Europe finally had its first sparkle in China, despite the fact that the first two race weekends were held in Le Mans and Nuburgring, there will be 3 more rounds in China. The C1 race weekend was indeed an big festival with more than 15,000 spectators on the grandstand and it draw much attention from the public.

Saturday Qualifying

During the half-hour qualifying, Hong Kong driver Paul Poon took pole position with a best time of 2:10.135, while Kenneth Lau and superstar Aaron Kwok came second and third, respectively. Kenneth Ma, FRD 's president, who introduced the Clio Cup Series to China, also participated in the race and came 4 th with tight lap times as the first four had best times all within the 2:11 range.

In qualifying session, Kenneth Lau, who was active in the GT race, set a good lap early on in qualifying with a best time of 2:10.276 in his third lap. However, Paul Poon later grabbed pole position with a best time at 2:10.135. Aaron Kwok was doing a quite well with his first experience in Clio and qualified 3 rd . Kenneth Ma, Paul IP and Stephen Edkins came 4 th , 5 th and 6 th respectively.

Sunday Race

The weather turned sunny on Sunday and more than 15,000 spectators came to the circuit just to enjoy a passionate weekend at C1 event. The 1 st round started in the morning. Pole sitter Paul Poon got off to a good start and Kenneth Ma started from 4 th hesitated a little and had to struggle his way out from the dogfight. After 3 laps, Poon managed to run in the front with a clear lead with Stephen Chau following behind. Aaron Kwok was third with Kenneth Ma on 4 th . In the last few laps, Paul IP's car experienced some technical problems and retired from the race.

The 2 nd round started in the afternoon with Aaron Kwok, the celebrity driver, in an even better form. Kwok managed to move up to 2 nd right after start and followed Poon very closely during the race. Kenneth Ma and Stephen Chau had a little contact and they both retired from the race. Oliver Lee moved to 3 rd due to this incident. Poon was the winner with Kwok 2 nd and Lee 3 rd .

The Challenge Show (C1) race weekend will travel to Chengdu in 3 weeks with celebrity charity drivers and race fans will be able to enjoy the show from the whole Clio III fleet.

For more info please go to FRD website: http://www.FRDsports.com