19/05/2016

2016 TCR Asia Series


Korea International Circuit, South Korea (13-15 May)

 



• Team Thailand’s Tin Sritrai leaves South Korea with a narrow points lead


• Viper Niza Racing’s Roelof Bruins goes from driver-coach to race winner


• Fantastic door-to-door action in both races, promises an interesting season



 

The opening round of the 2016 TCR Asia Series saw some impressive names added to the entry list, including some of the region’s best touring car drivers, so it was perhaps no surprise that the racing was tight at the front, although much of that had to do with a surprise last minute recruit who wasn’t added to the official entry list until Friday..!

 

In the end the round was won by Team Thailand’s Tin Sritrai, the 2015 event winner at his home circuit in Buriram was almost untouchable in practice, but the late addition of local hero Roelof (Ricardo) Bruins saw some serious competition for the young Thai, so much so that Bruins won the opening race - at Sritrai’s expense - whilst the Thai driver worked his way through for a comfortable win in round two.

 

Ahead of the opening round teams were given an opportunity to turn unofficial practice laps at Korea International Circuit on the Thursday, with Bruins throwing down the gauntlet early as the man the field would be chasing, his 2:23.720 lap-time in session one [in Douglas Khoo’s car] the benchmark heading into the official leg of the weekend.

 

QUALIFYING#1 (20-minutes)

As expected Sritrai began qualifying the same way he’d finished official practice - at the top of the timesheets, his 2:21.915 the new benchmark the rest would be forced to follow. By the close of the opening qualifier he’d been unable to better the time, but he still sat at the top of the timesheets, with the experienced Michael Ho finding some impressive pace to finish P2, displacing Roelof Bruins and Andy Yan who admitted he hadn’t quite made the most of the session.

 

QUALIFYING#2 (10-minutes)

With the top ten graduating to the second qualifier, teams enjoyed a second opportunity to gain track position for both races, something which was not lost on Sritrai who put pole completely out of the equation with a jaw-dropping 2:21.137.

 

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the driver who would share the front row, TeamWork Motorsport’s Kevin Tse putting his Volkswagen Polo GTi TCR on P2 with a late push, his 2:22.295 displacing both Yan and Bruins who was unable to find the perfect balance amidst traffic, being forced to settle for P5, but with a reverse top eight grid for the second race, the move could well have been labelled strategically clever.

 

RACE#1 (14-laps)

The start for the opening race was a fairly torrid affair on the fast run to the very tight left-hand opening turn - at one stage the field was five wide with pole-sitter Tin Sritrai holding the lead as Henry Ho and Roelof Bruins went to the extreme outside of Kevin Tse as they hit the braking point, Bruins with two wheels on the grass trying to avoid contact.

 

That forced him back to fifth, with Henry Ho the early aggressor. By turn four Kevin Tse’s promising start came unstuck on cold tyres after he’d taken the lead on the run to turn three. He was forced to watch the bulk of the field drive past him before he could rejoin with a big task ahead.

That allowed Andy Yan through to the front with Sritrai in close pursuit, whilst Bruins held Henry Ho at bay for third.

 

By lap two Sritrai was menacing the rear of Yan, but the experienced Hong Kong-based driver was up to the challenge, whilst behind them, Bruins and Henry Ho closed in to make it a four-way battle for the lead.

 

On lap six the almost inevitable happened, with Bruins making contact with the side of Sritrai as he went for a passing move at turn ten. Unsighted, Sritrai moved across to take the apex, unaware that Bruins was there. The local driver tried his best to pull out of the contact but ultimately had nowhere to go.

 

That allowed Bruins and Henry Ho to close on Yan, who delivered another masterclass in defensive driving before Bruins made the move stick at turn 12 on the final lap, having trailed Yan for almost half the race searching for any weaknesses he could exploit.

 

Bruins held on through the completion of the lap to take the win, with stewards judging there was no malice intended with the contact with Sritrai. Yan was a close second, with Henry Ho a happy third, whilst Sritrai crossed the line fourth having made up some serious ground in the closing laps as the fastest man on the circuit.

 

“I had a bad start, and dropped back to third, but I managed to come back to second behind Andy [Yan] but couldn’t quite catch him,” Sritrai explained post-race. “Then car #1 [Bruins] caught me and passed me which spun me around. I don’t think there was enough room for a move, and I was disappointed that he hit me, but there was nothing I could do about it, I just had to keep pushing for a result.”

 

From Bruin’s perspective, the contact was unavoidable..

 

“Tin was fighting with Andy for the lead, but they got held up in turn ten. Andy braked a little bit earlier and Tin didn’t defend the inside line, so I dove up the inside and braked as late as possible. I thought Tin saw me and wouldn’t move across to the apex, but he did and there was nowhere to go. Either I could lock up and T-bone Andy, or go on the grass and potentially take them both out, so I stayed on the inside and he moved across and hit me in the door and spun.

 

“It was not on purpose, you don’t time those things, it’s impossible. It’s about racing on the edge and for victory and that’s what we all do, and sometimes those things happen.”

 

RACE#2 (14-laps)

Roadstar Racing’s Terrence Tse held pole for race two, by virtue of the inversion of the top eight qualifying positions from Q2. Alongside him off the start Filipe de Souza bogged down on the inside which allowed the hungry pack behind him to swamp the Liqui Moly Team Engstler driver on the run to turn one.

 

From the second row, Roelof Bruins charged up the inside with Michael Ho - who started the Champ Motorsport Honda alongside Bruins - joining him in a drag race to turn one.

Roelof grabbed the lead on the exit with the two Champ Motorsport cars line astern behind, with Terrence Tse and Sritrai not far adrift. Bill O’Brien had made a great start to pull alongside TeamWork Motorsport team-mate Kevin Tse, but he got caught out on cold tyres on the exit of turn three and spun, dropping him to rear of field.

 

Sadly for Michael Ho, his strong start was thwarted by a spin mid lap, the tight pack for the lead contributing to his inversion.

 

By lap three Sritrai was all over the back of Bruins, the Korean driver giving him room to take the lead on the run into turn one, before tucking under the rear wing of the Team Thailand Honda on the exit with a view to returning the favour at turn three.

 

Sadly for Bruins the opportunity never presented itself, and he was soon forced to go defensive again as Yan closed in, in the Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen, the multiple China Touring Car champion making the move on the run to turn three two laps later.

 

Despite a strong third placed finish in race one, Henry Ho was struggling with a technical issue in the car during race two, but despite that and a slow getaway, he started to work his way back through the field, passing team-mate Michael Ho with just three laps remaining.

 

By this stage Bruins was back up to speed, having conserved some Michelin tyre life for one last assault on the leaders. He locked onto the back of Yan, but the Volkswagen driver too had found something a little extra, and despite immense pressure from behind, the Liqui Moly Team Engstler driver prevailed for his second podium of the weekend.

 

Up front though there was no denying Team Thailand’s Tin Sritrai who overcame the disappointment of race one to claim his first victory of the season, and the championship points lead.

 

“Starting from grid eight it was always going to be difficult because it is so hard to overtake on this track,” Sritrai admitted. “I had a good start, much better than race one because I had a lot of wheelspin, but no problem this time and I managed to overtake about five cars in the first corner.

“I also managed to catch car #1 and pass him because my pace was very good, so I just used that to my advantage to work my way into the lead, but the thanks for my performance needs to go to my team who did a very good job.”

 

“This is the first time I’ve raced with this car and Liqui Moly Team Engstler, and it went very well,” Andy Yan - who now sits third in the championship admitted. “We didn’t have any data for this circuit, so a lot of time was spent during practice developing a setup for the races.

 

“The performance of the car was better in race two. I started P6 and was up to P3 after the opening lap, but by that stage Tin and Roelof had a good lead, so I had to chase, and I ended up climbing up to second, but more importantly we collected some good data on the car in preparation for Thailand.”

 

“We had very good hopes for race two because of how well we’d done in race one. We were particularly good at saving the tyres until the end of the race, so the objective for us was to stay in front for half of the race, then see if I could get a gap,” Roelof explained.

 

“Basically for us what the problem was, was top speed, and that’s where they overtook me and there was no way I could defend. My start was very good and I got to the front for a couple of laps, but I could see them coming in the slip stream and they basically went past me and there was not much I could do. I tried to tuck in behind them and get a tow on the straight and try to follow them and secure a podium, so that’s what we did.”

 

For now the focus of the TCR Asia Series team will turn to the Chang International Circuit in Buriram in Thailand where points leader Tin Sritrai will take advantage from home track knowledge, and the fact that he was a winner in TCR when the series debuted there in 2015.

 

Throughout the season, the TCR Asia Series website  - www.asia.tcr-series.com will feature both LIVE TIMING and the LIVE STREAM. Links are available to both on the main page.

 

Keep up to date too with www.facebook.com/TCRAsiaSeries which will post news, video clips, images and updates, and you can also get involved in the conversation onwww.twitter.com/TCRAsiaSeries 

 

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Korea International Circuit, South Korea (14 May)


Qualifying#1 (20-minutes)


1. Tin Sritrai (Team Thailand Honda Civic TCR) - 2:22.714


2. Michael Ho (Champ Motorsport Honda Civic TCR) - 2:24.354


3. Roelof Bruins (Viper Niza Racing  Seat Leon TCR) - 2:24.548


4. Andy Yan (Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) - 2:24.912


5. Henry Ho (Champ Motorsport Honda Civic TCR) - 2:24.918


6. Kevin Tse (TeamWork Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) - 2:25.273


7. Terrence Tse (Roadstar Racing  Seat Leon TCR) - 2:27.283


8. Filipe de Souza (Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) - 2:29.666


9. Bill O’Brien (TeamWork Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) - 2:30.078


10. Yu Kam Cheong (Roadstar Racing  Seat Leon TCR) - 2:31.482


11. Douglas Khoo (Viper Niza Racing  Seat Leon TCR) - 2:32.149

 



Qualifying#2 (10-minutes)


1. Tin Sritrai (Team Thailand Honda Civic TCR) - 2:21.137


2. Kevin Tse (TeamWork Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) - 2:22.295


3. Andy Yan (Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) - 2:22.856


4. Henry Ho (Champ Motorsport Honda Civic TCR) - 2:23.006


5. Roelof Bruins (Viper Niza Racing  Seat Leon TCR) - 2:23.489


6. Michael Ho (Champ Motorsport Honda Civic TCR) - 2:23.901


7. Filipe de Souza (Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) - 2:24.027


8. Terrence Tse (Roadstar Racing  Seat Leon TCR) - 2:27.934


9. Bill O’Brien (TeamWork Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) - 2:29.400

 

Race#1 (14-laps)


1. Roelof Bruins (Viper Niza Racing  Seat Leon TCR) - 14-laps


2. Andy Yan (Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) +1.527


3. Henry Ho (Champ Motorsport Honda Civic TCR) +5.312


4. Tin Sritrai (Team Thailand Honda Civic TCR) +7.054


5. Michael Ho (Champ Motorsport Honda Civic TCR) +19.549


6. Kevin Tse (TeamWork Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) +19.768


7. Filipe de Souza (Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) +29.589


8. Terrence Tse (Roadstar Racing  Seat Leon TCR) +1:24.178


9. Yu Kam Cheong (Roadstar Racing  Seat Leon TCR) +2:24.938


10. Bill O’Brien (TeamWork Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) - 13-laps

11. Douglas Khoo (Viper Niza Racing  Seat Leon TCR) 


 

Race#2 (14-laps)


1. Tin Sritrai (Team Thailand Honda Civic TCR) - 14-laps


2. Andy Yan (Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) +2.591


3. Roelof Bruins (Viper Niza Racing  Seat Leon TCR) +3.503


4. Kevin Tse (TeamWork Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) +10.099


5. Filipe de Souza (Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR) +31.150


6. Henry Ho (Champ Motorsport Honda Civic TCR) +42.680


7. Michael Ho (Champ Motorsport Honda Civic TCR) +45.196


8. Terrence Tse (Roadstar Racing  Seat Leon TCR) +1:10.245


9. Douglas Khoo (Viper Niza Racing  Seat Leon TCR) - 13-laps


10. Yu Kam Cheong (Roadstar Racing  Seat Leon TCR) 


11. Bill O’Brien (TeamWork Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR)

 

Driver’s Championship points (after two rounds of ten)


1. Tin Sritrai (42-points), 2. Roelof Bruins (41), 3. Andy Yan (39), 4. Henry Ho (25), 5. Kevin Tse (24), 6. Michael Ho (16), 6. Filipe de Souza (16), 8. Terrence Tse (8), 9. Bill O’Brien (0), 9. Yu Kam Cheong (0), 9. Douglas Khoo (0)

 

Amateur Driver’s Championship points (after two rounds of ten)


1. Kevin Tse (48), 2. Michael Ho (47), 3. Terrence Tse (33), 4. Yu Kam Cheong (20), 4. Douglas Khoo (20), 6. Bill O’Brien (18)

 

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Rnd#1/#2, 13-15 May - Korea International Circuit (South Korea)

Rnd#3/#4, 10-12 June - Buriram International Circuit (Thailand)

Rnd#5/#6, 19-21 August - Shanghai International Circuit (China)

Rnd#7/#8, 21-23 October - Zhejiang Circuit (China)

Rnd#9/#10, 18-20 November - Guia Street Circuit (Macau)*