Cheung Chi Sing had a brilliant end to his day at the Bira International Circuit today when he claimed a pole to flag win ahead of Adrian Henry D’Silva and Gary Sham.

 

The top three finishers all had a fantastic race with Cheung managing a great clean start and immediately began pulling away from the rest of the pack. The Team IMSP-S&D driver managed to control his pace and pulled a big gap halfway through the race.

 

“I am just happy with the results of the race today. It is getting me closer and closer to the Championship win.

 

“At the start, I managed to have a good start and I slowly managed to open up a gap to the second placed driver. Midway through the race I had a problem with my tyre but I was really lucky that I already opened the gap and I could hold on to the lead all the way to the finish” said a happy Cheung at the Post Race Press Conference.

 

Coming in second was JPM Nexus Racing driver, D’Silva. The Malaysian driver started the race in fourth and had a great start to the race, overtaking both Charles Ng and Chin Tzer Jinn as soon as the lights went out.

 

D’Silva then lost his second place to Ng on lap 3 when Ng took the inside of the turn to gain the advantage, but five laps down, Ng suffered some problems and went into the pits, leaving D’Silva once again with second. He then managed to hold on to his position despite the charges of his teammate Chin.

 

“I had some problems with my first gear during the Free Practice and the boys in my team managed to rectify it. I didn’t get to test it so during the race I was totally surprised at how well it worked.

 

“I managed to jump Charles and TJ at the start to come up second behind Cheung. After a few laps Charles was right behind me and he overtook me on lap 3 or 4 and a few laps later while I was catching him, at the same time TJ was catching up to me, then I don’t know what happened to Charles he just went into the pits”.

 

For Gary Sham, starting from the pitlane was not a hindrance as he managed to gain ground with each lap. Sham first overtook Frank Yee on the third lap and then made his move on Danny Stacy Chau who then made a mistake and spun into the gravel on lap six. Danny Chau managed to rejoin the race but Sham and Yee both passed him.

 

Sham then continued to pursue Man Ting Yu and got him by lap 16. Luck was on his side as by this time Charles Ng had already gone in to the pits with a mechanical problem while Chin suffered a puncture on lap 17 and had to park his car on turn three, leaving Sham with third.

 

“Before the start I had an engine problem and the mechanics managed to fix the problem, but by the time we managed to get the car out, the pitlane had already closed leaving me to start from the pitlane. From there I just tried my best and drove as hard as I could.

 

“Every car I saw in front of me I managed to overtake and I did not have any problems throughout the race. I think I managed to put pressure on the drivers instead of being pressured by them” said Sham with a laugh.

 

At the end of the race, Man Ting Yu crossed the line in fourth ahead of Frank Yee, Danny Stacy Chau and Caesar Wong, with Chin Tzer Jinn and Charles Ng both with a DNF.

 

The Asian Touring Car Series will continue on Sunday, 13 September 2009 at the Bira International Circuit with Round 9 being held at 12.05pm and the final race of the season, Round 10 at 4.45pm.