Mitchell Cheah wins Race 2 on his home track

Mitchell Cheah claimed his maiden TCR win in the TCR Asia and TCR Thailand second race at Sepang. It was a great result for the 20-year old Malaysian who joined the Liqui Moly Team Engstler after he was selected through the Sepang International Circuit’s talent development programme.
The victory also meant that Cheah took the leadership in the standings, two points ahead of his teammate Luca Engstler, the winner of Race 1.
The race began with drama: Jakraphan Davee took the best start from the front row of the reverse grid in his Alphafactory Racing SEAT León, but at Turn 2 he spun after making contact with Chariya Nuya’s Billionaire Boy Racing Honda Civic. During the first lap there was a collision between Nattanid Lewattanavaragul in the Morin Racing SEAT León and Diego Moran’s Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTI; Moran went off onto the gravel trap, while Lewattanavaragul clashed with Engstler and then retired into the pits.
The safety car was deployed to recover Moran’s car. When the race resumed on lap 4, Cheah overtook Nuya for the lead, while Lo Sze Ho (Maximum Racing Honda Civic) moved up to third ahead of Abdul Khaatir (R Engineering Honda Civic).
While Cheah was able to build a gap, Engstler recovered and was involved in a fight for the second position with Nuya and Lo. On lap 6, Nuya was given a drive through for jump start, which left Lo and Engstler to fight each other.
The Macanese driver managed to keep the young German at bay and crossed the line ten seconds behind the winner. Kaathir was classified fourth and encored his Race 1 victory in the Asia Cup, while a close battle for fifth was won by Kelvin Wong in the Elegant Racing SEAT León ahead of his teammate Alex Liu and Ivan Szeto (Maximum Racing Honda Civic).
Davee won the TCR Thailand race from Nuya and Pattarapol Vongprai (Vattana Motorsport Honda Civic).

The TCR Asia and TCR Thailand second race meeting will take place at Buriram’s Chang International Circuit on 2/3 June.