First person | Local WTCR participants acknowledge difficulties and opportunities

Running for the first time as FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) and with a season finale in Macau, the FIA, together with local organizers, has decided to grant the opportunity to six local racers to enter the Macau WTCR race as “wildcard” entries.

The event will therefore see a record 31 cars on track, enriching the grid with some local experience.

The Times interviewed two of these racers to learn about their feelings and ambitions ahead of Guia Race.

KEVIN TSE

I am very excited and honored to be representing Macau in the upcoming WTCR race.  Racing against the world-best touring car-drivers is a dream come true and I really appreciate the support that the Macau government, Sports Bureau and AAMC have given me.

As for the race, it will be a very tough challenge. World-class drivers and teams have been racing for the whole year and therefore they have tons of knowledge and setup reference for their cars and Yokohama tires.

There is lot of catching-up for me to do. We will have a few days of testing to hopefully gain as much setup knowledge [as possible] before heading to Macau.
Making the 105 percent qualifying-cut is our first objective and then hopefully we will finish well in the three races.

RUI VALENTE

Rui Valente

Well, [to participate in the WTCR race] for me, it was a possible solution after being just one spot away to qualify for the [Food4You Race] where I’ve [been] racing for many years.

Since I couldn’t achieve that, I tried to [determine] the possible options to race and the WTCR seemed to be the only reasonable one.

It’s of course a very complex race with a lot of top world drivers that are doing the World Championship and those are [theoretically] out of our reach.

I would say there are about seven candidates for the World Title and I am sure they will race to their full to achieve that.

In my particular case, firstly there is the need to classify for the race but I think it is possible; the car is good and I know the circuit very well. I think it is definitely possible to quality for the race and then to be calm and try to take the opportunities that will for sure arise. The front-runners will be racing hard and in Macau that means crashing hard too.

It’s important to be patient and [not] get too excited and take the opportunities from possible crashes of drivers, that are theoretically faster, to gain positions.

In addition we also have in this championship a good group of at least eight or nine drivers [who] will be racing on the Guia circuit for the first time and our experience as local drivers can come [in] handy.