Hong Kong racers dominate qualification races Macau GP

The Macau Touring Car Series (MTCS) ended yesterday afternoon at the Zhuzhou International Circuit.

It consisted of two rounds of qualification races for this year’s Macau Grand Prix, in two different categories.

In the most popular category, the Macau Roadsport Challenge, 58 racers who were divided into two groups (A and B), participated in the four racing events over the weekends of May 17-19 and July 5-7.

Showing absolute dominance, Hong Kong driver Damon Chan achieved the perfect score, winning all four races of group A.

Chan proved to be unbeatable at the wheel of his Toyota GR86 finishing ahead of all competition and with a comfortable lead.

Another Hong Kong racer, Adrian Chung, repeated the results from Round 1 in May and finished last weekend’s races in second, behind Chan.

Third place overall went to mainland driver Huang Ying who came third in Races 3 and 4 this weekend after having already scored important points in the first two races in May.

Similarly, in group B, the neighboring region drivers were also distinguished with wins to Wong Chuck Pan (Race 1) and Jactin Chung (Race 2).

Finishing second in Races 1 and 2 were two other drivers from Hong Kong, respectively Vincent Yip and Cheung Chun Yuen, the last placing third in Race 1. Completing the podium in Race 2 was Race 1 winner Wong.

Best among the Macau racers were Sabino Lei (group B) and Lo Kai Tin (group A) both securing a sixth position in Race 1 and a seventh position in Race 2, respectively.

With this final weekend at Zhuzhou, this year’s MTCS has finished.

The next time the Subaru BRZ and Toyota GR86 will be on track will be Nov. 14 for the GP.

This year’s championship also brought some novelties for the racers with several penalties being handed to drivers for track limit infringement, something that MTCS drivers have not been used to but that caught many this time, particularly in Race 1 Saturday.

GLOOMY PROSPECTS FOR THE GBA GT CUP

Part of the 2024 MTCS is the Greater Bay Area GT Cup for GT4 specification cars.

As the Times reported in early May, the category seems to be lacking interest and participants.

With only 14 racers from Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan and New Zealand listed to race before the championship began, only 10 participated in any of the four races held this year.

Over the last weekend, only eight racers were listed to participate in Races 3 and 4 and, of these, only seven raced.

In Race 1, local racer Lao Kim Hou in a Ginetta G55 beat the competition over the 15-lap race winning comfortably over Hong Kong’s Kenny Chung and Taiwan’s Kan Che Wei, both driving Ginetta G55s.

Third in Race 1, Kan eventually won a more disputed Race 2, crossing the finish line ahead of local racer Miguel Lei in an Audi R8.

Leong Keng Hei, also from Macau in a BMW M4, completed the podium of Race 2 after Race 1, where he finished last, 2 laps behind the winner.

As in previous events, to have a GT4 race taking place at the local GP, organizers need to recruit many drivers from the mainland who were not part of this championship to fill up the grid.