There has been a steady stream of cars arriving in Malaysia ahead of the historical opening round of the TCR Asia Series this weekend at Sepang (4-6 September), amongst those the three-car Roadstar Racing outfit has certainly attracted a lot of attention in pit lane.
Hong Kong’s Samson Chan, Macau’s Filipe Clemente de Souza and Masahiko Ida from Japan will campaign the three pristine Seat León Cup cars in the four-round inaugural season of TCR Asia Series, which joins the TCR International Series at Singapore, Thailand and Macau.
The driver lineup of the new Roadstar TCR Asia team sees some serious experience on the circuits of Asia shared between the trio.
Samson Chan has more than 20-years competition experience in Asia, in everything from open-wheelers to sporstcars. Clemente de Souza has competed in the Macau Touring Car Championship over many seasons with a best placing of third in 2009, and he was also a competitor in the World Touring Car Championship between 2011 and 2014.
The third member of the team – Masahiko Ida – has been mixing business with racing since 1997, as the founder of the iconic Japanese braking brand DIXCEL – a long-time supporter of Asian motorsport. He has competed in a variety of series over the years including the hotly contested Japanese Super GT series, and Audi R8 LMS Cup.
The official leg of the opening event on the 2015 TCR Asia Series calendar gets underway on Friday, 4 September with tow 30-minute official practice sessions, although teams have been on-site at Sepang and testing for much of the week in preparation for this historic event.
2015 TCR Asia Series – Calendar
4-6 September, Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia
18-20 September, Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore
23-25 October, Buriram International Circuit, Thailand
20-22 November, Guia Circuit, Macau