TCR / 20 November 2023

Triple podium for Civic Type R TCR in Macau

The Honda Civic Type R TCR scored three podium finishes as two more major TCR series; the Kumho TCR World Tour and TCR China, concluded on the streets of Macau.

 

Kumho TCR World Tour

Nestor Girolami scored his first Macau Guia Race podium as he finished second in the first of two races on the legendary street circuit.

The Argentinian qualified fourth but started superbly to reach the infamous Lisboa right-hander second aboard his MacPro Racing Team-run Civic. He bided his time, managing his tyres, before attacking for victory during the latter stages.

He finished just half a second from victory and added sixth place in Sunday's reversed-grid race to help him climb to fourth in the end-of-season points.

109 Racing's Baowei Deng won the TCR Asia Challenge class for non-World Tour drivers. He was 14th and 11th overall in the two races.

 

TCR China

Martin Xie scored a pair of second-place finishes as the MacPro-run Dongfeng Honda Racing Team ended their season in the series.

A strong start in Sunday's finale brought him into the podium positions and he drove consistently to finish in the runner-up spot, repeating the result he'd achieved from seventh on the Race-One grid 24 hours earlier.

Team-mate Jack Young came into the weekend leading the championship and went fastest in qualifying but was denied pole position when the spate of red flags during the session led to its cancellation; the grid being set by practice times instead.

This put him fifth on the grid and, after starting well, he was driven into the wall before the first corner by a stablemate of his chief title rival (who was penalised post-race for his actions) and sustained race-ending damage.

He set the fastest lap in Sunday's finale, but needing to win, his title hopes expired when team-mate Andre Couto was fired off at Lisboa and blocked the track, leaving Young no option but to drive into the barrier in sympathy. He finished second in the championship.

Couto, who started third, had recovered to seventh on Saturday after stalling on the line and falling to the back of the back.

Norris Racing's Tony Chan and Chun Leung Chan had best finishes of 15th while Spark Racing's Yunjie Zhou recovered from a Race One crash to finish 16th in Race Two.