04 Sep 2022 OFC Zhuhai race 2 | Gao Yu-Jia takes another victory!
Zhuhai International Circuit
On September 4, the Open Formula Challenge (hereinafter referred to as OFC) continued its exciting competition at the Zhuhai International Circuit. In the morning, another round of qualifying for the OFC was held, TRT Racing team Gao Yu-Jia narrowly beat R&B Racing driver Wang Zhong-Wei and took his second pole position of the weekend. In the second race that followed, Gao Yu-Jia performed another pole to win and won the OFC's first two races with an absolute advantage, ushering in a good start to the season.
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Qualifying: Gao Yu-Jia takes pole position again
Gao Yu-Jia was the fastest in the field with 1:35.602, ranking first in the FRAC class, the lap time is almost the same as his pole-winning lap yesterday. However, Wang Zhong-Wei greatly improved his performance and was only 0.141 seconds behind Gao Yu-Jia in second place. Team KRC's Lu Wei-Lin was third, and another R&B Racing driver, Lin Nan, was fourth by half a second. The Asia Racing Team driver Lai Zhi-Cong in the Formula Renault car took the fifth and the first place in the FR class, while Lu Lei and Li Qiang of the TRT Racing team were sixth and seventh respectively.
Race 2: Gao Yu-Jia wins again
At 1:10 in the afternoon, the formation lap began, and the race distance of 23 minutes + 1 lap commences. Gao Yu-Jia and Wang Zhong-Wei started from the front row. At the start, Wang Zhong-Wei's car failed to start successfully and was overtaken by many cars behind him. Gao Yu-Jia maintained the leading position, and Lu Wei-Lin took advantage of the situation to move up one place to second. And Li Zhi-Cong improved several positions and climbed to third overall.
After one lap, Gao Yu-Jia had established a 1.577-second advantage. Lin Nan, who ran fourth overall, continued to attack Li Zhi-Cong, and Lu Lei in the rear also waited for an opportunity to get ahead. Taking advantage of the entanglement of the three cars in front, Wang Zhong-Wei picked up the rhythm and launched an attack on the group. On lap four, Wang Zhong-Wei overtook Lu Lei and chased after his teammate Lin Nan. The three drivers, Li Zhi-Cong, Lin Nan and Wang Zhong-Wei, formed a triumvirate. All three have the opportunity to claim third place overall. After that, because Wang Zhong-Wei's pace advantage, he passed his teammate Lin Nan on the fifth lap and began to challenge Li Zhi-Cong.
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In the next two minutes, an accident happened. When Wang Zhong-Wei tried to pass Li Zhi-Cong with a late brake move on the inside line at the Turn 7, the two cars collided slightly. Wang Zhong-Wei's car could not decelerate smoothly and speared off into the gravel bed, sadly ending his race. The safety car was dispatched, and the gap among the cars were compressed. At this time, the overall ranking is temporarily Gao Yu-Jia, Lu Wei-Lin, Li Zhi-Cong, Lin Nan, Lu Lei, and Li Qiang.
With seven and a half minutes remaining in the race, the safety car was withdrawn and the race resumed. Gao Yu-Jia took the lead to ensure the lead, and Lu Wei-Lin also took advantage of the situation to increase the gap between himself and Li Zhi-Cong behind him. At this time, Li Zhi-Cong was too busy to worry about Lu Wei-Lin, as he was again under attack from Lin Nan behind him. Finally at turn 9 of the track, Lin Nan succeeded in grabbing the inside line, successfully overtaking Li Zhi-Cong, and came to third position overall.
With 2.5 minutes left in the race, there was a lap of about 1.3 seconds between Gao Yu-Jia and Lu Wei-Lin in the top 2 position. On the next lap, Lu Wei-Lin started to show his strength, once narrowing the gap between himself and the car in front to 0.719 seconds. However, as the race entered the final lap, there was very little time for Lu Wei-Lin to make a move. Feeling the pressure exerted by Lu Wei-Lin from behind, Gao Yu-Jia also increased his speed.
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In the end, Gao Yu-Jia took the checkered flag with a clear advantage, and won two consecutive races this weekend. Lu Wei-Lin took second place and Lin Nan took the last place on the podium. The three were also the top three in the FRAC category. The fourth place in the competition was won by Li Zhi-Cong, who was also the champion of the FR category. The fifth and sixth place went to Lu Lei and Li Qiang respectively.
In the FRAC Master category, Lin Nan, Lu Lei, and Li Qiang won the first, second and third place respectively.
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Overall winner Gao Yu-Jia's comments after the race
“The victory in today's race is actually quite easy, because the gap between me and the opposition behind me is quite large. The dispatch of the safety car during the race did not affect my rhythm. My lap speed has an absolute advantage, as long as I follow the safety car and be myself.”
FR class champion Li Zhi-Cong's comments after the race
“The weather this weekend is very hot, and the physical requirements of the drivers are very high. My original intention of participating in the competition is to finish the race and accumulate more race mileage. In fact, there were some collisions today, but luckily I can continue the race. So, the whole weekend went really well, it just took a lot of time to set up the car for the tires. For my next step in the future, I plan to drive an F3 car to get back the feel and condition of the track.”