Qualification races end for locals aiming to join 70th Macau GP
The Macau Touring Car Series (MTCS) racing season came to an end last weekend, with the drivers’ final standing points to come under the purview of the Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee, which will finally select and invite the best of the short season (four races) to take part in the desired Macau Grand Prix.
This time the racing season, which aims to qualify the best racers to race at the Guia Circuit in November, took place over two weeks at the Guangdong International Circuit in Zhaoqing.
The most significant point of the season was the change of cars for the so-called Macau RoadSport category, which in the past was running small touring cars with 1.6-liter turbo engines.
In a way, the series has made a return to its glorious past, going back to run naturally aspirated engine vehicles, but, this time, as a single-maker series. This means that every racer in this series, technically speaking, is at the wheel of the same car.
The choice fell on the road models sold commonly under the models Toyota GR86 and Subaru BRZ that are equipped with a 2.4-liter engine.
With the end of the border restrictions and the end of the old multiple categories – which also included the over 1,995cc cars – it was also possible to return to a filled paddock with many locals as well as Hong Kong racers joining this revived racing category.
In reality, the number of applicants so far exceeded the expectation of the Automobile General Association Macau-China (AAMC) that racers had to be divided into two classes, each presenting 22 racers.
Hong Kong racers dominate qualification
At the end of the 4-race season, Hong Kong’s Lo Pak Yu emerged champion with a total of 70 points, followed by another racer from the neighboring region, Adrian Chung, who scored a total of 55 points. Third overall in the series was another Hong Konger, Chan Tat Man, with a total of 52 points.
The best class from Macau was Leong Keng Hei, third in the B class and sixth overall with 36 (A points) and 3 (B points).
Like many others, Leong moved into this racing category this year after having raced last year in the GP at the TCR Asia Challenge with a Honda Civic Type R (FK2) TCR.
Many others undertook the natural transference from the previous RoadSport categories to this new one, including names such as Cheang Kin Sang, Rui Valente, Martin Sou, Mou Chi Fai, and many more.
As previously presented by the MGPOC, this year’s two-weekend special edition of the local GP will include two races for this type of vehicle, the common Macau Roadsport Challenge, to be held on the first weekend, and the Macau 70th Anniversary Challenge to be raced on the main weekend.
According to information that the Times could obtain about the drivers, the first 15 classified from the A class and B class will be racing on the second weekend in the Macau 70th Anniversary Challenge, while the remaining ones will be racing on the first weekend in the Macau Roadsport Challenge.
