The 68th Macau Grand Prix will have the participation of 133 drivers including local drivers and those coming from the mainland and Hong Kong, the president of Sports Bureau and Coordinator of the Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee (MGPOC), Pun Weng Kun said yesterday.
Questioned by the media, Pun said, “In this edition, all the drivers are coming from the mainland, Hong Kong or are local drivers. Some are undergoing quarantine.”
“Last year we had 119 drivers and this year we are having 133,” Pun added, adding that to this point, the MGPOC is not aware of any driver who, due to Covid-19, cannot travel to Macau in time to take part in the event.
“[To date], and from the information we have, all [drivers] can [meet out expectations] and come to Macau to compete,” he said. Pun added that the pandemic situation in several mainland provinces is reportedly stabilizing and returning to normality, thus it hopefully will not affect the Grand Prix event.
As for pandemic-related prevention and control measures, the MGPOC coordinator said that while all Grand Prix staff members and drivers must be vaccinated and take a nucleic acid test (NAT) to enter, spectators will not be subjected to such procedures. Spectators have only to comply with the normal measures: namely temperature checking, the presentation of a valid green health code and use of facemasks.
As for the members of the media, they are required to take a NAT with a validity period of seven days.
Pun also revealed that during the event, GP staff and drivers will have to take additional NATs which have a validity period of 48 hours.
Almost full-house expected
Questioned on ticket sales for the event which is set to begin on November 19, Pun admitted that he did not have the current figures on hand, but noted that a few days ago ticket pre-sales had already reached around 60% of the tickets available.
The MGPOC coordinator said that the sales are going well, and that given the recent requests from several companies and organizations for more tickets, he anticipates a good turnout.
Pun also noted that, like last year, due to pandemic restrictions the total capacity of the spectator stands is reduced to about 30% of the current 10,000 seats.
“We have more than 10,000 seats in the stands. We had to reduce [in comparison to 2019, about 30% of the capacity] due to social distancing,” Pun said, adding, “We trust that we can have the [available seats] full. We have been receiving requests for tickets so we trust that we will have good attendance.”
TCR China champion, runner-up out of Macau GP race
Although already rumored since last weekend, it has finally been confirmed that neither this year’s TCR China Champion, Rodolfo Ávila, nor his teammate, first runner-up of TCR China and title contender to TCR Asia Championship, Zhang Zhendong, will compete on the streets of Macau on the third weekend of November.
According to information obtained by the Times, the team MG XPower Racing decided to withdraw all three cars from the final round of the TCR Asia event to take place in Macau between November 19 and 21.
In doing so, the team prevents the participation of the three drivers, including Ávila, Zhang, and Martin Cao, in the final round of the championship.
The drivers place currently in the third, fourth, and fifth position of the championship behind the championship leader Jason Zhang Zhiqiang and Ma Qinghua, both from Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing. This round will decide which of the two will win this year’s TCR Asia championship in Guia circuit.
Although the team refused to comment on the decision, according to information available to the Times, the decision to withdraw the three MG 6 XPower TCR cars might be related to an event that occurred last year, when MG XPower Team racer Rob Huff was stripped of the Macau Guia race victory following a polemic post-race penalty for an incident with Ma Qinghua at the Mandarin’s Bend. Huff crossed the finish line in first position but was handed a post-race 30-second penalty by the stewards, dropping to 23rd position.
Victory in the race was then handed to Jason Zhang, followed by Sunny Wong. RM
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