The final race of the ZIC and FRD jointly promoted AFR was held in Zhuhai International Circuit on Dec 14. At the final of 7 rounds, Jim Kato from HK took over the lead passing Geoffrey Kwong, the American Chinese.
The starting-grid was based on the results of the first race on Saturday. Kato was on pole position, Luis on 2 nd , Geoffrey 3 rd , Tengyi Jiang was 4 th , and 5 th was Ryan .Chin Ka Lok, the celebrity driver from HK, also took part in the race and he started from 10 th .
At the beginning, everything went smoothly. All the cars passed the first corner safely. Geoffrey and Luis started a good fight, which gave Kato the chance to extend his lead to 1 second. Tengyi was overtaken by Rio Ryan and Hong Wei Cao . Car No.7 Diana Rosario drove off the track at the first corner and retired from the race.
In lap 3, car No.27 Martin Cao spun at 4 th corner and was passed by Tengyi, Ryan and Zhang Shanqi. In lap 4, Luis set the fastest lap time 1:37.324.
In lap 6, Tengyi drove to the pit with a mechanical problem and Kato, on the other hand, set the fastest lap time 1:36.380 and managed to extend the gap with Luis to 1.7 second. The lap times were getting faster and faster. In lap 8 Luis broke the record set by Kato and that was the fastest lap of race 2 (1:36.326).
Kato won the 10-lap race and Luis & Geoffrey finished 2 nd and 3 rd respectively. After the race, Kato said that he was very happy with the result and appreciated all the support. He also said that the weather was less humid than the first day and the track condition was better. This helped him to give a better performance.” I haven't got anything planned for the next year yet, but I would like to try Japanese F3.”
Luis indicated that although he was using a set of old tires, still he set the best lap time of the race. The tires were worn and it was hard for him to overtake Kato. He wasn't sure about which championship he will be attending the next year. “Hopefully I can go to Japan or Europe for F3 or European Renault Championship.”
Geoffrey captured 3rd. He knew that Kato and Luis were much faster and overtaking during start was his only chance to win. He didn't quite make it. He wasn't disappointed about losing the championship as he knew he did performe very consistently this season and kept the championship alive until the last race. The coming year he would like to give F3 a try, of course, which will be mainly depend on the sponsorship.
As the 2008 AFR season has finished after 9 months of racing with several different winners and championship leaders, we can make up a positive balance after an exciting year. Let's count on a splendid show from AFR 2009!
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