Weekly Racing Roundup (11.23.20)

Ye Hongli Wins Macau GT Cup

TORO Racing driver Ye Hongli won the GT Cup element of last weekend’s Macau Grand Prix, delivering Mercedes-AMG’s fifth victory at the renowned street race in seven years.

Ye started the main contest from pole position after qualifying race winner Darryl O’Young was given a 30-second penalty for not maintaining a suitable width between cars during the start procedure.

This dropped O’Young to 11th on the grid for Sunday’s headline encounter and paved the way for new pole-sitter Ye to command proceedings from pole position.

Ye kept the lead at the start and continued out front after a first-lap safety car for a Lotus spinning into the left-side barriers coming out of Turn 1.

The TORO Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo never lost its lead after that, with Ye holding off Marchy Lee’s X Works Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo over the next few laps until a red flag was brought out after Yao Liangbo’s AMG stopped on the racing line after a barrier strike.

This neutralization enabled Ye to pick up the win, ahead of Lee in second and TSRT Audi driver Weian Chen who had been managing a slow puncture throughout the race.

O’Young was actually running third at the time of the red flag after squeezing past Chen at Lisboa corner, but the results were backdated to the start of the lap they were on.

O’Young’s impressive recovery charge started with the former Macau winner taking four places on lap one before gaining a further two positions on the first lap after the restart.

Both he and Chen then filtered past TORO Racing’s Min Heng at Lisboa with four racing laps remaining, turning their duel into the battle for the final podium spot.

The highest-finishing GT4 car was Brian Lee’s Mercedes-AMG GT4 in 13th overall.

This year’s Macau GT Cup was the first since 2014 to be run without the FIA GT World Cup moniker. The event’s global element was called off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

RESULTS: Qualifying Race / Main Race

Other Weekend Action

***Shaun Thong, Yuuki Nemoto and Daisuke Yamakawi triumphed in round four of the Super Taikyu season held at Motegi. The HIRIX Good Day Racing trio won the five-hour race in their Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. D’station Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 started from pole but was forced to retire after damage sustained in an accident on lap three. Electrical issues for the DENSO Lexus RC F GT3 and a drive-through penalty for the MP Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 all aided Good Day Racing’s run to victory. Results

***FFSA French GT held its title-deciding round at Paul Ricard. Father-son duo Olivier and Aurelien Panis won the first race in a Gazoo Racing-backed CMR Toyota GR Supra GT4, while Nicolas Gomar and Mike Parisy controlled Race 2 in their AGS Events Aston Martin Vantage GT4. Despite retiring from the second encounter with a punctured radiator following contact with another car, Audi duo Gregory Guilvert and Fabien Michal clinched their third consecutive Pro-Am drivers’ title. Results

***Silver Cup season honors went to Ricardo van der Ende and Benjamin Lessennes, while Cesar Gazeau and Wilfried Cazalbon won the Am Cup title.

***The Greater Bay Area GT Cup, held as part of the Macau GP weekend, was won by David Pun Kwan Lum in a Mercedes-AMG GT4 run by Team TRC. Chang Chien Shang was second in an MP Racing KTM X-Bow GT4, ahead of three competitors in Ginetta G55s.

***Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley won Sunday’s SVRA race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The 58-year-old, who was appointed to the chief executive position on Oct. 1, raced his British Racing Green-colored 1978 Lola T298.

News & Notes

***Maro Engel will make his World Rally Championship debut next weekend. The GT3 ace is set to drive a Skoda Fabia R5 Evo in the Rally Monza event, receiving pace notes from seven-time WRC podium finisher Ilka Minor. The car will be prepared by WRC2 teams’ champion Toksport WRT, which ran Engel and Luca Stolz in ADAC GT Masters this year.

***Engel also recently helped Mercedes to claim a new series production car record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, with a Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series running on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires. Engel’s lap time of 6:43:616 registered on Nov. 4 broke the previous record set by Marco Mapelli in a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ by 1.36 seconds.