CTCC Race 4 -Tengyi "Khan" - still undefeated in Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Date: July 09-10th,2011
Location: Ordos International Circuit (OIC)
Round£º4/8 Rounds
Jiang Tengyi of the Changan Ford Racing Team took the lead from the start and never look back. Giving the team three wins in a row and remains undefeated in this two-year old circuit after winning both 2010 and the 2011 CTCC races.
Heat in Zhuhai, Rain in Chengdu and now Sand in Ordos - The team arrived in Ordos earlier this week and discovered that the track was very dirty as a result of sand blown over by occasional strong wind which is quite typical in this area.
The teams finally got the first chance to drive the track Thursday. Andy Yan, as a result of his good result in Zhuhai and Chengdu, was carrying 140Kg weight making his car the heavier car ever in CTCC history and this 1,270 kg total weight is very close to the weight of a fully loaded production Focus.
Qualifying, Saturday
The team sent all four cars out immediately hoping to take advantage of a cleaner track generated by a previous supporting race. Rainey He, Jiang Tengyi, and Fan GaoXiang made full use of the fresh tires and took over the top positions of 1, 2 and 4 immediately. Rainey's time of 1' 56.656 equals the best lap time of 2010. As the tire performance started to go down, the lead group basically finished the Q session in that order. The team has achieved four pole positions out of four races this season.
Race, Sunday
The 16 laps race started on time in the afternoon under perfect weather but hotttttt. Track temperature reached 54C when the race started. Tengyi immediately jumped into the lead with his teammate Rainey following. Rainey experienced mechanical issue with the shifting and had to go into the pit to fix the problem. Fan Gaoxiang had a good start and put himself into the lead group.
Tengyi started pushing and widened the gap with the cars behind consistently and never relinquish the lead.
Andy Yan had also a very good start and moved himself into 6th but fell back to 8th after only two laps. He continued to fight his way back and finished the race in 6th position gaining valuable points for himself and taking 60 kg off his car for next race. While his two senior teammates were struggling with their own issues, the young driver Fan Gaoxiang drove a respectable race and finished third helping the team to gain the team championship of this CTCC round 4.
After this race, the Changan Ford Racing Team has opened up a comfortable 55 points lead from the second place team. The team will go home for the summer break. The second half of the season is scheduled to run in TianMa circuit in Shanghai early September.
John Ling, Team Manager
“I really feel bad for Rainey the way his race went but I am extremely happy for Tengyi finally pocketed his first win after losing the last one in Chengdu because a blown tire which was manufactured back in 2007. Really great quality control system the tire company has for allowing old tires got into the system like this. Let’s see if they have a better corrective action system.
I am also very encouraged by Fan Gaoxiang’s performance in this race. He is making good progress but there are more things for him to learn in the days to come.”
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2011 CTCC Changan Ford Racing Team Race Result
