Mikola wins incident filled Zhuhai race

Ananda Mikola took a lights to flag win, in the Zhuhai Pan Delta Super Racing Festival,from Dado Pena and Christian Jones. Greg Murphy won the Promotions Class with Lee Farrell second. The race was punctuated by the safety car which was required after Avila and Marave clashed.

The drama began in qualifying with Pena losing fifth gear on his first lap out. The team changed the gear and got him out for the last ten minutes of qualifying. He repaid them with fourth on the grid. Less fortunate was Tyson Sy whose engine lost a cylinder and with only two hours between QTT and the race Speedtech were unable to remove it from their 398 car and fit it to Sy’s car on time. Sy would sit out the race but will join Sunday’s event.

Meanwhile Mikola qualified first from Christian Jones and James Winslow, these three covered by one tenth of a second. Moreno Soeprapto was first in the Promotions Class from Farrell and Murphy. John O’Hara suffered a misfire and was unable to post a sensible time.

As Jones left his pit garage to start his sighting lap before the race he lost first gear. Jones was destined to be very slow away at the start, having to use second gear, and would spend the race playing catch up. The start saw Mikola take an immediate lead from Winslow and Pena, however an electrical problem for the former saw Pena blast by at turn 11 on lap one. Moreno and Farrell both stalled at the start allowing Murphy to build up a good Promotions Class lead.

The safety car bunched the field up when Avila’s car was left in the middle of the track after Marave had used him as a brake. Marave was given a fine by the Stewards for his part in the incident. Christian Jones had worked his way up to third but had the lapped Pastor between himself and second placed Pena at the restart. Pena was able to hold Jones off to take a well earned second place. John O’Hara finished fourth from Marave, Murphy, Tuason, Pastor and Farrell. Moreno finished his race in the gravel whilst Winslow’s electrical problems were terminal. Renan Morales suffered an engine failure. Tuason’s car failed the airbox test after the race promoting Farrell to second in class.