On 5 th October, 2008, Asian Formula Renault Championship's Race 11 and 12 are hosted at the Zhuhai International Circuit. As a professional formula race in the country, the most promising young drivers from China, Hong Kong and Macau have all gathered for this race. Here, we can see the future of Chinese motorsports. The most famous international drivers in the world all goes through karting, junior formula racing, Formula Renault, GP2 and then to Formula 1. In order to become a good driver, professional systematic training, talent and timing are all essential. In yesterday's qualifying, two 15 year-olds qualified on the front row. Indonesia's Rio Hayranto and China's Cao Hong-Wei (from Changsha, Hunan)
Due to the effects of tropical storm Higos, Zhuhai has seen large quantity of rain since the night before. According to the weather report, Zhuhai will have heavy rain with strong winds, temperature between 24 ¨C 28 degree C, humidity at 75% to 98%. This kind of weather is a huge challenge to drivers, cars, tyres and even the mechanics.
At 10:45am, race 11 officially begins. Due to the non-stop heavy rain, in order to guarantee a safe start, the organizers decides to deploy the safety car for the start. In the earlier warm up session, celebrity driver Chin Ka-Lok crashed as the track was just too treacherous.
The first lap of the race is held under full course yellow and behind a safety car. All the drivers carefully follow their own lines and positions and run as slowly as possible. At the end of lap one, the safety car returns to the pit lane and the field is unleashed. All the drivers powers towards the first corner. Huge plumes of water spray is caused by the cars in front, blinding the drivers behind them. Although some drivers try to pass in the middle of the race, in this weather it is simply impossible. In the end, all the drivers drive carefully around the track to complete the race, in the order they started it. ART Motorsport's Rio Hayranto wins, PSR Team's Cao Hong-Wei takes second while Jim Ka To finishes third. The weather changes quickly when a tropical storm hits. The sun briefly showed its face at noon, but at 3pm, strong wind and heavy rain hits ZIC once again. This weather means the organizers once again have to make use of the safety car again.
But the drivers are not frightened by this kind of weather. After one lap, when the safety car returns to the pits, leader Rio Hayranto speeds away. Behind him, Cao Hong-Wei and Jim Ka To also speed up. The trio produces huge water sprays in their wake. They are not going to let the race run out like the first race. On lap 5 Jim Ka To passes Cao Hong-Wei at T9 for second, afterwards Cao makes a mistake and went off into the sand trap and has to retire. After the race, he said, ¡°I have never raced in such wet conditions before. Jim Ka To obviously has more experience than me. I race along the normal racing line, but he chose a drier line. My tyre hit some standing water and I locked up, causing me to go off.¡±
 |
 |
On lap 7, no. 10 goes off into the sand trap. Celebrity driver Chin Ka-Lok, joining the race after some emergency repairs after his morning shunt, spun on the track. After that, the rain becomes heavier and heavier. There is a lot of standing water and cars are spinning everywhere. As the race enters its 9 th lap, the organizers decide to stop the race with a red flag. ART Motorsport's Rio Hayranto wins again, Frestech FRD's Jim Ka To finishes second. Adderly Fong takes third place.
After the race, Rio Hayranto is very happy to have collected the full 60 points. He said, ¡°Thanks to my team, they set my car up really well, allowing me to win the morning race. Rain was very heavy in the afternoon race, but in the first five laps I ran very hard, not allowing the cars behind to pass. Later the red flag was shown and the race stopped. I can say I have been very lucky today, but we built this luck between the team and my efforts.¡±
One second place and one third place, allows Frestech FRD's Jim Ka To to close his gap in the championship to Geoffrey Kwong to 4 points. This makes him very happy. He said, ¡°In the morning race I was more conservative, but in the afternoon I was racing hard. Now that we have closed the championship gap, everything is there to play for in the final race in Shanghai.¡±
At the end of this round's races, the title of the Asian Formula Renault Championship will have to be decided in the last round at the Shanghai International Circuit.
|
