No fewer than 12 Audi Sport race cars will be on the hunt for wins and titles across four championships at two different race tracks in China this weekend.
The FIA WTCR Race of China is joined by TCR China at the 4.101km Ningbo International Speedpark, while the season finale of the three-round Pan Delta Super Racing Festival at southern China’s Zhuhai International Circuit will see three local Audi Sport customer teams – Zun Motorsport Crew, Tianshi Racing Team (TSRT) and Champ X T.A. Motorsport – on the hunt for Circuit Hero and Circuit Hero One titles respectively.
The FIA WTCR Race of China triple-header is the seventh stop on the 10-round 2019 calendar, kicking off the Asia-based close of the season. Audi Sport is represented by its two official teams, each with two Audi RS 3 LMS cars.
At Comtoyou Team Audi Sport are Belgian Frédéric Vervisch, recently on the Audi Sport Team WRT Suzuka 10 Hours-winning team, and the highest-placed Audi Sport driver in the WTCR standings, and Dutchman Niels Langeveld. Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport fields former 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner and 2017 TCR International Series champion Jean-Karl Vernay of France, and Briton Gordon Shedden.
For TCR China, held in support of the WTCR event, the two races in Ningbo will mark the penultimate round of their season which began in May in Zhuhai and will end in Zhuzhou in mid-October. The two car Liqui Moly Team NewFaster entry of Terry Huang and Kenneth Look have been strong all season.
Champ X T.A. Motorsport field James Wong for the double-header, bringing the number of Audi RS 3 LMS fielded at the circuit over the weekend to seven.
At the 4.3km Zhuhai International Circuit, the Zun Motorsport Crew duo of Ma Ka Chun and Lin Yiming will go head-to-head for the Circuit Hero Supercar Challenge title in the team’s pair of Audi R8 LMS GT3s. Also stablemates in the Audi Sport R8 LMS Cup this season, Ma leads the standings with a three point advantage over team mate Lin.
Audi Sport Asia driver David Chen of TSRT, despite sitting on an impressive 20-point advantage over his closest challenger in the Circuit Hero Supercar C class standings for GTC vehicles, makes the switch to Supercar A for full-spec GT3 machinery in the team’s 2019 Audi R8 LMS. Chen took his third consecutive top five finish in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia in Korea last month along with co-driver Rahel Frey, and arrives in Zhuhai on scorching form.
In the Circuit Hero One Class A title chase for TCR cars, Felipe Souza sits just four points adrift of the top of the leaderboard with the Champ X T.A. Motorsport team who also field Patrick Tsang in the team’s third Audi RS 3 LMS entry across two series this weekend.
