HAIRUMAN RECOVERED FROM SENTUL TO WIN IN CHENGDU

15 September 2007

It was a good clean race for Round 5 of the Asian Touring Car Series at the Chengdu Goldenport Circuit today. Fariqe Hairuman (right) recovered from his troubles in Sentul and scored an emphatic win for his team after two previous non finishes to reclaim his Championship lead.

“I feel tired now after the race but I thank God for the great win. We were faced with some problems with the differential on the car in the last few laps and I don’t know what happened but it was lucky that we can finish the race in a good position” said Hairuman during the post race press conference.

He also quickly thanked his Petronas Syntium Team crew for the win citing: “We worked hard these past few days to find a good setup for the car and finally found it."

"The car ran well until we faced the differential problem. I didn’t want to take any risk so I slowed my pace a little towards the end to make sure I bring the car safe back home”.

Second place went to Japanese driver, Masaki Kano of Engstler Motorsport.

Through the translator Kano (left) cited that the team was not able to get a good setup until later in the week as they were faced with lack of data due to the heavy rain during the first few test sessions.

“But day by day, the weather got better and we managed to get more information from this new circuit and the team was then able to concentrate on the setup and we got this good result today” said Kano.

On the newly built Chengdu Goldenport Circuit he said “although the circuit is not perfect yet we can see that it will be good in the time to come. The circuit has a lot of corners to make racing here really interesting and I truly enjoyed the race here today”.

Team IMSP celebrated a podium with Cheung Chi Sing’s third place and after a few bad outings, Cheung (right) was glad to once again be on the podium.

“It was impossible to get close to the frontrunners as their cars are so powerful for me to catch up with them but I am glad just to be here”.

The drivers in the series finished in much the same position as the start with privateer Melvin Choo in fourth and Team IMSP drivers, Danny Stacy Chau, George Ong (left) and Man Ting Yu in fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

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AFOS Background

The Asian Festival of Speed (AFOS) is recognized as Asia’s premier motorsport event comprising the FIA-sanctioned Asian Touring Car Series, Formula V6 Asia, Porsche Carrera Cup Asia and Formula BMW Asia.

Sepang Circuit plays host to the season opener of the Asian Festival Of Speed. The event will then take the teams to six outstanding Asian circuits, including the Sentul Circuit Indonesia, the newly built Chengdu Circuit in China, the Shanghai International Circuit, the famed Autopolis Circuit in Japan, the Zhuhai International Circuit in China and the infamous Guia street circuit in Macau.

AFOS is organized by Motorsport Asia Ltd and runs annually from March to November visiting 8 different venues throughout Asia bringing the event live to more than 300,000 spectators. AFOS also captures wide media coverage reaching an audience of over 230 million viewers in over 65 countries and is regularly featured in over 200 publications around the world.

Motorsport Asia Ltd was established in 1996. Being the region’s leading, fully integrated motorsport focused company, Motorsport Asia Ltd is on the cutting edge of developments in the motorsport business through its extensive network of international expertise, combined with regional know-how.

Motorsport Asia Ltd aims to develop Asian motorsport as well as offering spectators and television audiences the chance to enjoy the most talented Asian racing stars in action. To these ends, Motorsport Asia Ltd owns the commercial and intellectual rights to the Asian Festival of Speed championships and events. In addition, Motorsport Asia Ltd owns all terrestrial and satellite television rights of AFOS worldwide.