2018 China GT Wuhan R9 Race Report



CJ Huang, who has been the pace-setter for the entire weekend, took the chequered flag to claim fifth GTC victory of the season. His D2 Racing teammate Kuo Kuo Hsin celebrated maiden triumph in GT3 while Winning Team’s David McIntyre took home his second win in GT4.


GT3 Class

Min Heng in the #991 Porsche 911 GT3R challenged Kuo Kuo Hsin’s lead at the start, but got squeezed into the tight left-hander of T1 and had to remain in position.

The GT3 entries were struggling to unleash their full power on a tight and twisty Wuhan street circuit and were caught in traffic among the GTC cars. Kuo entered the pit lane for mandatory driver change ahead of Min Heng, and with two perfectly executed pit stops, China GT rookie Lin Nan could not make a jump on the experienced GT3 campaigner and finished second on his debut.


GTC Class

Starting from pole, CJ Huang bolted forward and cemented his lead from the very start. Fellow front-row starter Liu Kai did not make a clean getaway. He was squeezed by an GT3 entry and  clipped the kerb at T2, and dropped down the order to overall P5.

Behind them, championship contender Song Bo maintained position into T1, but was shunted by a spinning GT4 entry and brought his first Wuhan street challenge to a premature stop.

After three laps behind the safety car, Liu Kai in the #68 Radical started setting quickest times and  overhauled three cars to take back P2. However, much to the chagrin of the Chinese driver, his suspension failed on the back straight and he was forced to retire from the race.

Xtreme’s troubles have benefited the #307 R+ Racing entry of Wang Tao and Zhang Dasheng, who have stayed out of trouble and came through the field to take the second place on the podium.


GT4 Class

It all went wrong for the pole-sitter Lo Szeho from the very start. The Hong Kongese driver braked late into T1, but his #86 KTM collided with the Dong Liang’s #540 McLaren, who came from the outside, sending both into the barrier while taking out Lo’s GTC teammate Song Bo. Nothing says crazy street race quite like three retirements right from the get go.

Stanley Yang in the #618 China Equity AMR inherited the lead after the safety car period, followed by teammate Rodney Tu and Winning Team’s David McIntyre.

After the pit stop, McIntyre’s co-driver Charlie Fagg managed the jump the #619 entry who had an unusually long pit stop. The British GT campaigner than began to hunt down fellow Briton Jack Mitchell, who was recently crowned the British GT GT4 champion.

Fagg quickly slashed Mitchell’s lead by pounding out one quickest lap after another, taking over a second a lap out of the #618 China Equity AMR. He finally made it stick on lap 28 by diving down the inside of Mitchell to claim the lead. Redemption, as the teenager puts it, in reference to Mitchell edging him to the British GT championship by 2 points. And redemption it was.

Behind them, Martin Xie in the #619 suffered punctures twice when running over the T1 kerb, and finished 3 laps down from Fagg and Mitchell.

#86 was given a Drive-Through Penalty for causing the lap 1 incident which it will serve in the next race.