The final race of 2006 Super Challenge Show took place in a nice cool day in Zhuhai. The competition was divided into two days. Beautiful blue sky and sunshines provided the perfect condition for an excellent racing day for drivers and spectators.The races held on the first day were divided into three different categories.The first event was the IFC race which also served as the qualifying race for Sunday main race¡¯s grid. So the result from today's race had a direct impact for tomorrow's race. After 10 laps of exciting action, Pekka Saarinen from Finland won the race and took pole position for tomorrow¡¯s race. 13 yrs old young driver J.F.JAAFAR took second place, and A.IMPERATORI from Swizerland took third place.
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After Asia Renault Formula completed 12 rounds of championship, the final race finally begin, as the result took a direct impact to the IFC qualification race. SAARINEN carried his strong momentum during the race in excellent condition, finished first after 32' 59" 441 into the race. J.F.JAAFAR finished in second and A.IMPERATORI took the third spot. The talented kid Jim Kato had engine problem and forced him to quit from the weekend with regret. Thus, the Asian Formula Renault Challenge 2006 ended perfectly with SAARINENcontinued with the excellent performance to become the champion, A.IMPERATORI and J.F.JAAFARare the second and third runner-up.
In Sunday¡¯s final, both IFC cars and Asian Formula Renault Challenge cars were racing together. Due to the increased number of cars in the race, competition and action was intensive. Pekka Saarinen who already captured the season Driver Championship after the last race, continue to maintain his high level of performance. A.IMPERATORIhas been a very strong challenger all through the season so it is no surprise a lot of attention were focused on these two drivers during this 20 laps final.
In the early stage of the race, these two key drivers were running in front of the pack with SAARINEN leading by a slight margin. Jim Kato, the HK driver who had engine problem yesterday, ran into a couple minor collisions making it very difficult for him to make a breakthrough in the race and he finished the race in seventh place (third in IFC).
During the later stage of the race, the track was littered by gravels which were thrown on the track by some back markers that went off track especially on turn four. Therefore, the race was shown yellow flag for quite a while. At the final stage of the race, A.IMPERATORI overtook SAARINEN to win the race but Pekka Saarinen still won the IFC group with absolute advantage
In conlusion, may be there were too many cars in the race which contributed to the increased number of accidents. But this five rounds of IFC races provided to us different types of excitement. Cooperation with new sponsorship format had landed a perfect combination of racing and commercial activities. If we were going to say today's race was a good start, then next season¡¯s action will certainly represent a new leap forward.
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