The last round of 2016 SINOPEC Lubricant China Touring Car Championship season was accomplished on 6^th, Nov. HAIMA M6 Racing drivers HE Zixian and Leif TOMAS dominated opening race of Super Trophy 2.0T Group, which contains 17 laps in total on Sunday morning. Meanwhile, the third place went to Teamwork Motorsport’s Sunny WONG. After the second race in the afternoon, SAIC Volkswagen 333 Racing Team’s ZHANG Zhendong collected both race win and drivers’ champion. BAIC Senova’s ZHU Daiwei got second place and followed by Leif TOMAS, who snatched podium in both races. On the side of manufacturers’ champion, Chang’an Ford clinched the ninth out of their 11-year CTCC campaign.

Although the podium was shared by ZHANG Zhiqiang, YE Hongli and Henry HO in the first race of Super Trophy 1.6T Group, XIE Xinzhe still managed to get the drivers’ champion in advance. But the manufacturers’ champion was sealed by Dongfeng Yueda KIA since their drivers, YE Hongli, ZHANG Zhiqiang and JIM Ka To seized top three places in the second race, which is their second consecutive.

Within the China Trophy Group, Beijing Hyundai’s SUN Chao won the morning race after starting from pole and followed by his teammate DENG Baowei and GAC Toyota’s YE Junhui. In the afternoon’s race, Shanghai CUS Racing Team’s LIANG Kaifeng also completed a Pole to win, which is also his maiden win in CTCC. The rest podium places went to Phicomm’s ZHU Zhenyu and XIA Yu. At the same time, Beijing Hyundai’s YANG Xi became the latest drivers’ champion and the team crowned the manufacturers’ champion once again after 2015 season.

During the event, several leaders attended the opening ceremony, including ZHAN Guojun, the chief officer of both Federation of automobile and motorcycle sports of people’ s republic of china(CAMF) and General Administration of Sport’s automobile and motorcycle sports center, QIN Jian, the chief executive of Songjiang district, CHEN Xuezhong, special guest of CTCC, HE Jiandong, the general manager of China automobile and motorcycle sports development company, SUN Chujun, the secretary of the party committee of Sheshan town, LU Yunfeng, mayor of Sheshan town and ZHOU Jianguang, who is both vice secretary of Zhuzhou high-tech industry area and secretary of Tianyuan district of Zhuzhou.

ZHANG Zhendong’s historical double title and Chang’an Ford’s nine-crown legend

The last race of Super Trophy 2.0T Group was definitely dramatic, not for Chang’an Ford that sealed the title in advance, but ZHANG Zhendong of SAIC Volkswagen 333 Racing. Since pushed by rivals behind, ZHANG Zhendong felt huge pressure at the beginning of the race. Luckily, the race was shortened due to accident and helped ZHANG Zhendong to retain both his lead and title.

HAIMA M6 Racing showed a strong bounce back as HE Zixian and Leif TOMAS got a 1-2 finish and made a new history for domestic manufacturers. But the luck didn’t visit Chang’an Ford’s HE Xiaole, who lost title to ZHANG Zhendong, despite built a 3-piont leading advantage before the final race. BAIC Senova’s race- winning ace Rob HUFF didn’t attend this event, but ZHU Daiwei still managed to gather a podium place, which rounded out their 2016 season.

At the end of 2016 season, drivers and teams received the honors that they have pursued for a whole season. ZHANG Zhendong became the first and the only double champion of Super Trophy 2.0T Group, Chang’an Ford clinched the ninth out of their 11-year CTCC campaign and Teamwork Motorsport became champion of club teams with a considerable point advantage. In conclusion, Super Trophy 2.0T Group has already become the main stream of CTCC.

XIE Xinzhe and Dongfeng Yueda KIA became champions

XIE Xinzhe clinched drivers’ title in Super Trophy 1.6T Group without any incident, which is his first one after the China Trophy Group champion in 2012 and the first ever drivers’ title of Dongfeng Honda who has raced in CTCC for five years.

Dongfeng Yueda KIA also collected their second manufacturers’ champion in a string, thanks to the strong performance from KIA K3 and K3S racing cars. In the meantime, MZ Racing won the club teams’ champion without any challenge.

Beijing Hyundai’s triple crown and YANG Xi’s maiden title

Team work spirit, willingness and effort are the main factors of Beijing Hyundai’s 2016 CTCC campaign. Despite former ace CUI Yue cannot accomplish a full-season commission, the team rapidly elected two promising stars, YANG Xi and DENG Baowei as substitute and played important roles. Beijing Hyundai’s commitment to develop more excellent drivers came true once again. A lot of drivers who have ever drive for Beijing Hyundai Racing Team, always make good performance in multiple series. Especially SUN Chao and ZHANG Hanbiao, the current drivers , both have hope of contending the title, but they choose to support the team and their teammate. As a result of their effort, both the team and their teammate YANG Xi gained successes.

Newcomer Phicomm won title of club teams without any challenge. Phicomm driver ZHU Zhenyu has stand on the point of winning the drivers’ title, but he chose to give it back to YANG Xi. He said that if he got the title with the extra help of his own team Shanghai CUS Racing, he wouldn’t become the real hero. Although ZHU Zhenyu lost the title, he got respect and applause in return.

GK5 Challenge’s first shootout in CTCC event

GK 5 Challenge became the latest support event of CTCC. ZHANG Zheng, ZHU Xianbao and WU Yifan shared podium in first race and WUYifan，ZHANG Zheng and CHEN Guanjun got top 3 in the second one.

After that, 2016 SINOPEC Lubricant China Touring Car Championship came to an end. As an advanced battlefield always attracts automobile manufacturers, sponsors and front edge medias which produced and broadcasted by CCTV, CTCC won considerable reputation over the world, the 2017 season will be even more fantastic.