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FullyPower Circuit Hero Qualifying |
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Sunday, 21 January 2007 |
At 4:15pm on 20th January, FullyPower Circuit Hero Cup's qualifying session was staged at the Zhuhai International Circuit. From a young race to a mature and popular race series today, it has come a long way. Last year 4 races were held and it has instantly and miraculously gained the attention of fans and sponsors.
FullyPower Circuit Hero is a race that belongs to the people, the race uses day-to-day road cars and minimum race license grade to bring in the Chinese race drivers. It does not have the high costs requirements of the other professional series and allow the locals to demonstrate their passions for motorsports.
Some drivers even raced illegally in the streets before, but after they
hit the tracks they instantly notice the difference. "Illegal racing is
really very different from real circuit racing. After I have raced at a
circuit then I realized the danger of racing in the streets. Allowing
myself to demonstrate my passion in a race environment is safe and
rational. Racing in the streets is dangerous to myself and other road
users." One of the drivers said.
Once the cars hit the track, the difference between this race and other
races is obvious. The VW Golfs, Peugeot 206s, Honda Fit, Toyota Vitz...
they are just so familiar to the spectators. The Subaru Imprezas and
Mitsubishi Evo 9s also bring in some of the more serious and even
professional racers.
The drivers are not slow either. The pole time of 1:50.658 by the
Mitsubishi Evo 9 is indeed a very quick time. As the session
progressed, the no. 12 Toyota Vitz managed a 2:13. A credible time for
a small car.
Many cars returned to the pits for adjustments before making another
effort. All the drivers are careful not to get into each other's way,
as the real race only begins tomorrow and the session continued on
without much incident on track.
The session finished with the two cars from Shanghai Rong Ao Racing
(Team SRT), driven by Zhang Rui-Bin and Zhu Yuan-Lu on the front row.
Zhang's time of 1:50.658 was recorded in a Mitsubishi Evo 9 while Zhu
managed 1:55.458 in the Subaru Impreza. Hua Yang Racing's Foshan driver
Quan Zi-Qe was the best Guangdong driver in third place. It will be an
interesting fight between the Shanghai duo and the Guangdong maestro
tomorrow (21st January). They are all driving in the top class of the
race, class E.
No.31 Huang Zhen-Nan recorded 2:01.989 in a fantastic fifth place
overall in his Honda Fit for pole in class D. 1.5 seconds faster than
Chen Jia-Shun in the same class. Zhang Wei is third in the Geely
Meirenbao.
The race at 1:30pm tomorrow looks set to be an exciting feast for the spectators.
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