ANOTHER GREAT WIN FOR HAIRUMAN

10 October 2007

An exciting opening paved way to a good clean race in the Asian Touring Car Series Round 6 at Chengdu Goldenport Circuit.

Fariqe Hairuman started the race in seventh due to the reverse grid formation and he slowly picked his way through on the slippery wet track.

The heavy shower in the morning made the already slippery new circuit more difficult to handle, but after having five prior races to help dry the racing line, Hairuman and second placed man, Masaki Kano opted for slicks.

“It feels good to be here again. We were lucky today when me and my Team manager, Andy Poon, made the right decision to use slick tyres for the race. The tyres worked well in these conditions” said a happy Hairuman during the post race press conference.

“From the start of the race I just maintained my pace, I didn’t push too hard because it was too slippery out there and I didn’t want to take any chances by overtaking anyone. So I maintained my pace and luckily I managed to overtake the drivers one by one”.

Second to cross the line was Engstler Motorsport’s Masaki Kano (left) who drove a fantastic race, keeping up with Hairuman for most of the distance, “I started in fifth and had to concentrate on my slick tyres, nursing them until they warmed up."

"I saw Fariqe ahead of me and I just went about overtaking one by one”.

When asked who was the hardest to overtake, the Japanese driver smiled and said “I don’t want to say who as everyone played fair and we all had a good race”.

Following them in third was Team IMSP’s Cheung Chi Sing in his purple Honda Integra DC5 (right).

The Hong Kong driver opted for the wet weather tyres and commented “It was a good start to the race but we used the wet weather tyres and I felt them beginning to go,so I had to slow down and pace myself to the end of the race."

"The circuit conditions were half dry and half wet so it was difficult to handle.”

Behind them, Melvin Choo, Danny Stacy Chau and George Ong provided much of the action with their close racing (left).

But unfortunately for Ong, he was called in on lap 5 to serve a drive through penalty for a start infringement.

Choo finished the race in fourth, “it was a fun race and the last of the races for the weekend. I’m happy that I did fairly well so I’m excited. But at the start I made the wrong tyre choice and I was going sideways most of the time”.

[View Results & Standings]

The drivers are looking forward to the upcoming races in Autopolis Japan with Kano the most happy at racing on his ‘home circuit’ “I am excited and happy that we will be racing in my home country and it will be a good home race for me”.