PCCA Round 9 - Shanghai, China
(Chinese Formula One Grand Prix -1st October 2006)
 

Thanks to Create Images for the excellent photographs!

Storming in Shanghai

Some questioned the scheduling of this year's Chinese Grand Prix on the country's national day and thus in the vortex of the traditional week long holiday. They were wrong: a healthy crowd saw an exciting Grand Prix - preceded by a dramatic Carrera Cup Asia race.
 

The Gates GR Asia car in it's new livery for China - fcaca.com

The Shanghai circuit has been kind to me in recent years and I was looking forward to getting back behind the wheel to erase the memory of the difficult weekend at Sentul in July.

 

The 5.451 kilometre Shanghai Internation Circuit

We were lucky to enjoy two 30-minute practice sessions on Friday both held in overcast but dry conditions. The results from the first session were as follows:

1. Shinichi YAMAJI          2:13.046
2. Matthew MARSH         2.13.382
3. Keita SAWA                2:13.554
4. Nigel ALBON               2:13.721
5. Darryl O'YOUNG          2:13.869
6. Alain LI                          2:14.001

Matthew looks at the tyre data during the practice session

In the second session I also ended-up second to a Japanese driver - this time to my friend Keita Sawa. The results were as follows:

Practice 2:
1. Keita SAWA                     2:11.636
2. Matthew MARSH             2:11.792
3. Darryl O'YOUNG              2:12.052
4. Shinichi YAMAJI              2:12.267
5. Kazuyuki NISHIZAWA     2:12.450
6. Nigel ALBON                   2:12.764

The much improved times reflects the way the track 'rubbers-up' as the F1 cars begin lapping the otherwise rarely used circuit.

Matthew speaks with Martin from the Shanghai Daily ...

... and shows off his snazzy Oakley racing gloves.
Rain threatened Saturday's qualifying session but held off long enough for everyone to get a run or two on new tyres. Once again I was second quickest:

1. Darryl O'YOUNG                2:11.380
2. Matthew MARSH               2:11.527
3. Shinichi YAMAJI                2:11.729
4. Keita SAWA                      2:12.045
5. Nigel ALBON                     2:12.297
6. Kazuyuki NISHIZAWA       2:13.084

Matthew makes a quick getaway

The rain came shortly before our race on Sunday morning. I made a good start to beat Darryl away from the front row. Indeed my first lap gave me a two second advantage over Yamaji-san. Sadly it all slipped away at the beginning of lap two when I locked-up under braking for the first turn and ran wide - handing the lead to Yamaji. The following lap I repeated the feat elsewhere on the circuit and fell back to fourth behind Darryl and Nishizawa-san.

Leading the field on lap one

And fighting to hold onto second place on lap two.
The next eight laps were relatively uneventful as the top four circulated without any incidents. Then on the penultimate lap it began to rain hard. As we began our final lap visibility on the pit straight was almost zero. Worse, there was a large puddle on the approach to the first turn which caught out the top four drivers. Yamaji-san and Darryl were able to continue but Nishizawa-san became stuck in the gravel trap and a sitting target when I followed the same trajectory.

A split-second before impact.

The heavy rain caused the race to be red-flagged with the results declared at 10 laps and therefore as follows:

RESULTS:
ROUND 9:
1. Shinichi YAMAJI                                    Tomo Racing
2. Darryl O'YOUNG                                   Team Jebsen
3. Kazuyuki NISHIZAWA                          Tomo Racing
4. Matthew MARSH                                  Gates GR Asia
5. Keita SAWA                                         Cref Motorsports
6. Vutthikorn INTHRAPHUVASAK         SCC Racing Team

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS:
1. Darryl O’YOUNG                                                                162 points
2. Shinichi YAMAJI                                                                150 points
3. Matthew MARSH                                                               127 points
4. Keita SAWA                                                                       106 points
5. Nattavude CHAROENSUKHAWATANA                         94 points
6. Kazuyuki NISHIZAWA                                                         81 points
Rounds 10 and 11 of the series will be held at the Zhuhai International Circuit on October 22nd. .

Photographs courtesy of  www.createimages.com.hk

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