With the troubled opening round in the past, the second round was an opportunity to show TEIN’s full strength. The Beijing International circuit is a low speed bumpy technical course with many tight corners. Everyone was looking forward to a great race with the shock absorbers set up perfectly.

 

The FRD Focus acquired no points in round 1 and was looking for revenge changing the engine map and replacing the troubled transmission. All the testing went as planned, and the set-ups were all close to perfect, but then the weather started to look suspicious. How was the weather going to turn out for the qualifying rounds?

The qualifying round was held on 10^th May (Sat) and the weather for the morning tests was fine. The #1 Ford car set the best time. The TEIN Accords performing brilliantly as well and TEIN monopolized the top 4 positions in the warm up round. The #3 car was running in 6^th place, but suffered engine trouble in the last test run and had to pit in... did it make in time to qualify?

The qualifying round started, and the #3 car repaired its engine in time. All the cars were set up with special qualifying settings. The #2 car set the top time and grabbed pole position! The #2 came qualified in 4^th, and the #3 in 6^th. All the cars were able to grab good grid positions, the teams were filled with smiles and the mood was promising.

 

The weather completely turned around for the race on the 11^th May (Sun). It was raining from the morning and the surface conditions were very wet. The weather condition in China is very unpredictable… all the teams were rushing to change their set-ups to suit the rain. With the warm up laps completed and the final touches set, the rain stopped and the conditions were cloudy.

The surface conditions were still wet and all the teams were pondering which setting they should use for the race. The conditions for the 1600cc class race were semi-wet, but there was no more time to decide! All the teams were in the same position, and the only thing left was to leave it up to the drivers.

 

The race started with the #2 car in pole position but going into the first corner, he was overtaken and dropped to 2nd. Some cars spun because of the wet patches around the circuit. The #3 car regretfully spun off the course on lap 2 and ended up retiring. The #1 and 2 cars also were troubled with the difficult conditions and ended the race in 8^th and 12^th positions. The Hankook Accords finished in 1st and 2nd positions and the Kia came home in 3^rd; all equipped with TEIN shock absorbers. The FRD team lost to the weather this round, but they look for revenge in round 3 which is also going to be held at the Beijing International circuit.