Setting a high-profile pace for GT
Chinese electric vehicle brand NIO had a famous passenger in grabbing the spotlight on Sunday as the official pace car for the Asia GT Festival at Sepang International Circuit near Kuala Lumpur — the first time the China GT Championship has been held outside of China.
Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad rode in the NIO EP9 Grand Tourer pacer.
The electric-powered, two-seat sports car has broken a number of the speed marks, including setting the lap record at the famed test track in Nurburgring, Germany, clocking six minutes, 45.9 seconds in 2017.
NIO was selected as the pace car as the China GT recognizes the prospect of electric vehicles.
“EV is the future and in the first race overseas we showed the fastest EV to the crowd,” said Jim Ye Mingqin, founder of the China GT and president of Goldenport Motor Culture Development Co Ltd.
Ye said the racing championship will continue its collaboration with Malaysia and make the Asia GT Festival an annual event.
Round one of the GT3 class on Saturday was a titanic duel between Nick Yelloly’s Fist Team AAI BMW M6 and local hero Jazeman Jaafar in his Craft-Bamboo Mercedes AMG.
After taking over from teammates during the mandatory pit stop, the Malaysian driver was quicker in the corners but Yelloly had the edge on the straights.
Jaafar eventually settled for second place after blowing a tire late on the final lap, allowing Yelloly and teammate Junsan Chen to take the win to mark a fairytale China GT debut.
Reigning China GT champion Xu Jia and teammate Mitchell Gilbert finished a distant third in their Kings Racing Mercedes AMG.
There was no such drama in the GTC category, which shared the grid with the GT3 runners.
Evan Chen proved to be the class of the field in his Lamborghini Huracan, finishing an entire lap ahead of the Chinese duo of Zhang Dasheng and Zhou Bihuang in their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, with the Arrows Racing pair of Miguel Kong and Kelvin Wong completing the top three.
The GT4 class witnessed another debut win, as Alex Fontana and Chris Chia took top honors after the Swiss driver amassed a huge early lead before handing over to his teammate, who was able to bring the Phantom Pro Racing Mercedes AMG home in first.
Rainey He and Sunny Wong finished second in their Mercedes AMG, just ahead of the K2C Ginetta driven by Sennan Fielding and Kenny Chung.
Sunday’s round two produced another dramatic GT3 battle, with the Mercedes AMG of Alessio Picariello and Jeffrey Lee taking the win 0.6 seconds ahead of a charging Chris van der Drift, who had taken over from Li Chao.
Having taken the victory in round one, the Fist Team BMW M6 of Yelloly and Chen had to settle for third place in round two.
In the GTC class, Chen — who qualified second on the grid — took another dominant win while the second and third places were filled respectively by Zhang Dasheng and Zhou Bihuang, and Kong and Kelvin Wong.
In GT4 category, He and Sunny Wong took the checkered flag.
Wong took the lead with a textbook move up the inside of Liao Yang on the Turn 15 hairpin, with Liao and teammate Will Bamber ultimately finishing second ahead of a charging Fontana, who finished third with teammate Chia.
Rounds three and four of the China GT championship take place in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, from May 3-5.