Race Report - PCCA - Beijing, China

Round 3 & 4, Goldenport Circuit

This was the event that Porsche had poured its resources into. The plan was simple; educate the masses, and make the elite in China, understand what Porsche is about. The event showcased some of the most collectable Porsches in its long and illustrious history. Models such as the 908, 550 Spyder, 959, GT1, 917, 964 Cup, 993 Cup, 996 Cup and 997 Cup cars were present, making it the most impressive collection of Porsches I’d seen in quite a while.

The weather over the weekend was quite a lot warmer than I had expected. It was the 2nd time I have raced here as a driver. It is a tricky and truly technical circuit. There are only two extremely short straights, making it extremely tough on the body, and very little opportunity for overtaking.

The practice sessions didn’t go especially well. Due to the huge amount of cars on the circuit, the field was split in half during practice sessions. On practice 3, all of the cars went out together. The Wimobilize squad decided that we’d try and make some good setup changes despite the traffic out on the circuit from the backmarkers. Frustration set in later into the session as the car started to get slower for myself, and we became less competitive as the session came to a close.

Qualifying was a different story though. The session was an extremely tight affair and unfortunately, we qualified on the end of the train of cars. Though, our pace was extremely encouraging during the qualifying session. Between the grid 6 position, and grid 14 position was 0.9 seconds. Our 2010 GT3 McElrea contender, qualified 12th.

Race 1 was a pretty nerve wrecking affair initially. The massive 23 car field bunched up into turn 1, getting through cleanly though as the race progressed, cars started to make mistakes and get into all sorts of trouble. With the awful tyre degradation from the Michelin rubber this year, this tight and twisty circuit proved some drivers a handful. Jacky Yeung took a scary ride off the circuit into a brick wall. As the car arrived at the wall, it climbed it and flipped on Yeung’s second race this season. “I am okay. The car is okay,” he said, 30 minutes after he returned to the pitlane.

Marchy Lee and Rodolfo Avila were fighting it on in the front, Lee ending up on the shorter end of the stick, and suffering a grid penalty for race 2. Jeffrey Lee and Ringo Chong also suffered penalties for overtaking under red and yellow flags respectively. Taiwanese star, Lee was visibly extremely upset with the decision. “There was a car going very slow in front of me with its indicator on. I had to overtake the car. I had no choice.” The FIA rule book states that this can result in a DQ. He was handed a 10 grid penalty for race 2. Marcel Tjia was also a little unlucky and suffered a DNF with beaching the car at the end of the straight. The gravel is unforgivable in Beijing due to the circuits characteristics.

As for me, I had Francis Tjia and Christian Chia surrounding me for most of race 1. These two guys drove great during the race and we all had good clean racing on our hands. I was not able to close in to overtake Francis, though fortunately, we manage to lose Christian, while creating our own rhythm just ahead. Our McElrea contender finished 9th overall, and 4th in class.

Race 2 saw a rocketing Keita Sawa coming from 13th on the grid, after suffering a fuel pump problem in race 1. He was on fire, and we let him come through as he worked his way up the field. Sawa was our squads first race engineer, and we’ve kept in good step with him since. Singapore’s experience man, Ringo Chong was also working his way up the grid from 19th position due to his earlier penalty.

Our race saw me follow Christian Chia for much of the race. Several laps from the end, he made a small mistake just before the longest straight at Goldenport, just allowing me to get the run in for the next corner, and overtake on the inside. Though it was a fiercely competitive time in the race, and in 2010, it’s been fantastic to go racing with Christian Chia and Francis Tjia. In the same disappointment that Christian felt as I went by, I was passed by Wayne Shen with two laps to go. It robbed the Wimobilize squad of our first podium position this year, though I guess, we haven’t earned it on pure pace just yet. So this is okay. Once we have the pace, we can get podiums time and time again.