Qualification races for Macau GP’s roadsport challenge end with Hong Kong drivers’ dominance

The second and final round of this year’s Macau Touring Car Series (MTCS) was held over the weekend at the Guangdong International Circuit (GIC) in Zhaoqing.

The drivers from the neighboring region of Hong Kong have again demonstrated dominance in most of the weekend’s races.

These races serve as both preparation and qualification for the Macau Grand Prix, which will be held in Macau this November. The top competitors from a field of 68 racers listed at the start of these two rounds (4 races) will qualify to participate in the 72nd edition of the Macau Grand Prix.

As has been the case for the last two seasons, due to the size of the field with numerous racers from MTCS listed to participate, racers have been split into two groups (A and B).

After the first round, which took place on April 18-19, Group A was dominated by HK’s Lo Pak Yu from the 778 Auto Sport team, followed by another HK racer, Wong Chuck Pan. Third in the classification after the first two rounds was the local racer Leong Keng Hei.

In Group B, the classification list was also headed by a Hong Kong racer, Bayern Yip, followed by local racer Cheang Kin Sang and Yip Lung, also from Hong Kong.

It is worth noting that, as in previous years, this category is restricted to the use of a unified car model, Toyota GR86 and Subaru BRZ, with all racers driving identical cars.

On Saturday afternoon, Race 3 was underway with Wong Chuck Pan picking up from where he had left off and taking the lead in Group A, winning the 15-lap race ahead of his most direct opponent, Lo Pak Yu. The podium was completed with another HK racer, Chan Ka Ping, who scored essential points on his path toward the Macau GP.

Coming out of pole position for the last race, Wong Chuck Pan failed to get a good start, being immediately overtaken by Lo Pak Yu, who took the lead of the race while Wong was struggling to keep second in a door-to-door battle with Chan Ka Ping that almost pushed Wong off the track.

Lo took the opportunity to get away and created a comfortable lead of around 5.5 seconds, until lap 10, when Tsan Wai Ho went off track and got stuck in the gravel trap, prompting the entry of the Safety Car. After the safety car pulled out of the pits, there was only one final lap to race, with the top positions remaining unchanged, and victory going to Lo.

In Group B, Race 3 on Saturday was a peculiar one, with heavy rain starting to fall just before the race began. The race was eventually red-flagged due to the poor track conditions and restarted several minutes later behind the Safety Car.

Only at the start of Lap 5 (out of 14), the Safety Car finally left the track, and the race effectively started with HK racer Adrian Chung taking the lead, followed immediately by Cheang Kin Sang, Leung Tsz Wa, and the standings leader, at the time, Bayern Yip.

At the checkered flag, Chung clinched the victory, Leung finished in second place, and Tsan Pak Yin secured third place.

In the final race of the weekend, local racer Cheang Kin Sang took the lead over the opponents, winning over Leung and Tsang. Local racer Jerónimo Badaraco, who finished second in last year’s Macau GP Roadsport Challenge race, took fourth.

Now is the time to perform all the necessary calculations and select the final field that will be assigned to the GP. Although the organizers have not yet unveiled the format of this year’s GP, it is unlikely that the category will retain the two separate races from last year: one as the Roadsport Challenge and a second as the Roadsport Macau SAR Establishment Cup, an event added the previous year to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Macau’s handover.

If it happens, the selection will be much stricter this year, with fewer than half of the field able to participate in the most sought-after race of the year.