TCR China – Andy Yan clinches the inaugural title
After being crowned champion in the 2016 TCR Asia Series, Hong Kong’s Andy Yan has clinched the title of TCR China’s inaugural season.
The final event of the series took place at Guangdong International Circuit, where Yan won the first sprint race at the wheel of his NewFaster Team Audi RS3 LMS, collecting the points he needed to secure the Drivers’ championship.
In Race 1, Yan set pole position and led the whole distance, beating Sunny Wong in a TeamWork Motorsport Volkswagen Golf by seven seconds. The podium was completed by Wong’s teammate Alex Hui who managed to overtake Huang Chu Han in the second NewFaster Team Audi RS3 LMS. Hui had started from the back of the grid after failing to post a qualifying time, but recovered and passed Huang on the 12th of the 15-lap race.
The second sprint race was won by Wong despite a poor start; during the first lap the TeamWork Motorsport driver was chasing the NewFaster Team duo of Huang and Yan, then he overtook Yan on lap 2 and took the lead on the last-but-one lap when Huang’s Audi was slowed down by a technical issue. Yan retained third place after a close fight with Hui.
Yan took another victory in the 60-minute Race 3 that marked the end of the season. Wong and Huang sprinted at the start but they both outbraked themselves at Turn 1 and rejoined in fourth and fifth positions. This helped Yan to take the lead from Hui; the new champion was able to build up a gap a claimed a comfortable victory from Hui and Wang Hao (NewFaster Team Volkswagen Golf).
Wong and Huang clashed while fighting for third; Wong lost ground and eventually settled for fourth, while Huang dropped to fifth as his car had a technical issue once again.
Yan topped the final standings with 294 points, with his teammate Huang in second place (218); TeamWork Motorsport colleagues Hui (205) and Wong (201) were classified third and fourth.
