In its world premiere over the weekend in Macau, the Emira GT4 could not have had a better start in the competitive arena, securing a double win in Macau’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) GT Cup.
The two Emira GT4s driven by Chinese driver Luo Kailuo and British Adam Christodoulou have exhibited complete dominance in the class, culminating in a final victory for Luo in yesterday’s race, and a one-two finish for Christodoulou.
Despite the well-deserved celebration for Lotus and Toro Racing (the team that operated the cars in Macau), the victory was somewhat diminished by a red flag that brought the race to a premature end. Racers were denied the opportunity to cross the finish line, an unfortunate outcome for the third-best racer and last year’s winner, Alex Liang, who was driving a new BMW M4 GT4.
Nevertheless, the Lotus drivers, and particularly Christodoulou, should be relieved by the results especially given that on the first lap he almost collided with Han Lichao’s Toyota Supra GT4 EVO. Lichao, while attempting to recover from a bad start, missed the breaking zone for Lisboa Bend and slid across the track into the runoff area, narrowly avoiding Christodoulou’s car by millimeters.
The race was stopped at Lap 4 due to an unusual situation in which Taiwanese driver Lee Yen Han, in another BMW M4 GT4 F82, attempted to overtake the Mercedes-AMG GT4 driven by William Cheung in the narrowest area of the track. The area between Dona Maria Bend and Melco Hairpin is especially narrow and has a fixed yellow flag, indicating that overtaking is not permitted at any time. Despite this, Lee attempted to pass and was hit by Cheung who was unaware of his attempted overtake.
The collision resulted in Lee’s car spinning against the racing direction, resulting in a pile-up of several cars unable to avoid the blockade.
The victory ultimately ended well for the two Emira GT4 cars, which had already made the one-two during the Qualifying session, with Christodoulou at the front.
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