Fancy Teamwork had a weekend of challenges alongside its sister Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing team at the Zhuzhou International Circuit, but the team had a good run in the first race, with two cars finishing just outside of the top ten.
Qualifying
YAN Chuang was back in his #27 Lynk & Co 03 TCR this weekend, and was the best qualifier for the team, lining up 16th on the grid, with his Hong Kong team-mate Paul POON starting right behind him in 17th.
Unfortunately, LIN Cheng Hua was unable to set a time in qualifying and would line up 33rd on the grid for both races, which ultimately put the Audi driver in the danger zone.
Race 5
The first race was a relatively well-behaved affair up front, with the whole race being run under green flag conditions.
YAN and POON managed to make good progress in the race in their Lynk & Cos, working their way up to 12th and 13th positions overall by the finish, and with POON just missing out on the Am-class podium.
Unfortunately, further behind there was trouble at Turn 5 with a car knocked into a spin, almost completely blocking the track. LIN had managed to see the incident and almost avoided the drama, moving to the outside for the corner but unfortunately was tagged by another car into a spin and would soon retire from the race with damage.
Race 6
The second race was much more dramatic than the first. David ZHU’s stalled Lynk & Co was the catalyst in a multi-car incident near the back of the field.
Again, LIN’s grid position worked against him – while he was comfortably able to see and avoid ZHU’s car, he wasn’t able to avoid the car that launched itself over the back of ZHU and right in front of him, forcing him into the wall. LIN was forced to retire with broken suspension.
After the first restart, YAN and POON again made good progress, and were up to 12th and 14th before the race was red-flagged a second time.
During the final green flag stint of the race, while fighting for the final podium position on the Am-class, POON was taken out of the race at the problematic Turn 5 with just two laps to go, leaving just YAN to take the finish, crossing the line in 18th.
It was a tough weekend for the team, with Balance of Performance not favouring the heavily-ballasted Lynk & Co 03s of YAN and POON at the Zhuzhou circuit, while LIN’s Audi RS 3 LMS wasn’t able to make use of the car’s pace due to a bad grid position and incidents not of his making.
Paul POON remains second in the Am-class drivers’ championship at the mid-way point of the season, which is a major positive to take away from the weekend.
The team’s not downbeat, and will work hard over the summer break to bounce back fighting when the championship resumes at Shanghai in September.
