CTCC Race 5: Another double win for FORD racing team

After a 2-months' break, the China Touring Car Championship came back to Shanghai International Circuit. Changan Ford Racing team returned with a clear goal—Double win.

Saturday: qualifying--Rainey He won pole position by a nose

The qualifying session was indeed another close fight on the laptimes. Ford drivers were leading the results table in the early stage as Rainey He and Martin Cao were 1 st and 2 nd respectively. The session was red flagged because a car ran off the track and the qualifying restarted after a short break. Rainey He set an amazing 1:14.544 in lap 7 and that was the pole lap of the day. Martin Cao was 5 th . Tengyi Jiang's speed was getting better and he qualified 6 th . Andy Yan qualified 7 th . The top 4 laptimes' time difference was less than 0.1 seconds and the Sunday race will sure to be a fierce fight.

Sunday: Martin Cao-- the youngest CTCC winner ever!

The race started under cloudy weather. There were many contacts in the race and the close fight was triggered right after the start of the race. Pole-sitter Rainey He contacted with a red car and his front suspension was broken. Rainey He headed back to the pit and 5 minutes later, the Ford team sent him back to the competition and He was already 3 laps behind. Martin Cao got off to a flawless start and moved to the lead after 2 laps and managed to lead the race to the end with at least 2 seconds' difference. During mid-stage, Tengyi Jiang and Ken Look bumped into each other and Look retired from the race while Jiang had to head back to pitlane. The team again worked efficiently on Ford car and sent Jiang back to the track after less than 3 minutes. In the end, Changan Ford driver Martin Cao won the race with LO Ka Chun and LO Kai Fai finished 2 nd and 3 rd , respectively. Andy Yan was 4 th and brought the team 5 points. After this weekend Changan Ford racing team took back the lead and with only one race to go, Ford team looks very promising to achieve the team title. The competition for driver's title is now focused on Look and He.

Paul Hui, the Ford project director, said:” It is very rewarding to see the success that we have achieved this afternoon. I especially feel very satisfying that finally Martin Cao gets the result that he deserved. At this moment, I consider Martin as one of fastest drivers in the series. What he needs is more track/competition experience so he can maximize the benefit under all circumstances. Martin has also indicated in the press conference that he is learning a lot from his teammates and also from the other top drivers in the series. Developing young drivers for China has always been FRD and Changan Ford's dedication and we will continue to adhere to that thinking. So we are working on generating a more elaborate development plan for Martin in 2010. But of course, we still have to balance his racing and his study. At the same time, I feel very happy to see the professionalism and efficiency showcased by our Engineers and Mechanics. After Rainey and Tengyi collided with other cars during the race, our technical team repaired their cars in such high speed allowing them to go back into competition is absolutely satisfying for us in management. Even five minutes repair time seems to be short but it already put them a few laps behind and very difficult to get back to a good position in the race. But our two drivers and the team are showing everyone that we will never give up and will fight to the last second. I also want to compliment Andy's performance in race. He followed the team's instruction to stay back and wait for opportunity. He executed the instruction perfectly and gained very valuable points for the team. Now we have to go back and start preparing for the next race in the new Guongdong Circuit. Both the team and driver championship are still open and we are expecting an exciting race in December.”

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