Teamwork Motorsport will wind up their Chinese Touring Car programme in order to focus on racing in the 2017 TCR Asia and TCR China series’, after acquiring the ex-Leopard Racing Volkswagen Golfs for this year.
The Chinese team have recently acquired the 2016 TCR International Series title-winning Golf GTi of Stefano Comini along with the team’s sister car of Jean-Karl Vernay.
It had recently been reported in Italian media that Leopard Racing may not make it to the grid in 2017, and the news of the sale of the cars adds further weight to the claim.
For Teamwork, however, the cars provide an ideal platform upon which to expand their efforts, having finished as the runner-up in the 2016 championship with Kevin Tse.
The team’s former CTCC drivers Sunny Wong and Alex Hui will join the TCR ranks in 2017, with both drivers planning to compete in both TCR Asia and the recently-announced inaugural season of TCR China.
“We were honoured to have run in the China Touring Car Championship between 2014 and 2016, having achieved multiple race wins on the way to the Independents’ title last year,” said TeamWork Motorsport Team Principal, Paul Hui.
“It is the right time to modify our model of participation in the CTCC, and after one season of TCR Asia, we are confident about the future of this category and we will start to move more resource in that direction.”
Meanwhile Wong, who tasted TCR machinery in Macau in 2015, before controversially racing a CTCC car in 2016, is looking forward to the new opportunities presented by switching series in 2017.
“I am very proud to have been part of TeamWork Motorsport’s three seasons in the CTCC,” Wong added. “Looking back, we learnt, grew and won together as a team, and we also witnessed big regulation changes to the Official Engine and Chassis that made the competition more intense for teams and more entertaining for spectators.
“I am sure we can apply what we learnt in the CTCC to the TCR programme and I’m very excited to see how well we do.”
WSC Asia’s David Sonenscher, who is the promoter of TCR Asia, believes that the team will continue to be a contender for the overall title in 2017.
“There’s no denying that TeamWork Motorsport’s professionalism and commitment to the sport has been the catalyst for their success in a variety of categories,” said Sonenscher. “More particularly, that experience contributed to their domination of the Amateurs Class of TCR Asia in 2016.
“They were a force right throughout the season, with Kevin Tse finishing the year as a regular outright podium finisher and having upgraded to the championship winning Leopard cars for 2017, there’s no reason why they won’t be able to continue that trend this year.”
The 2017 TCR Asia Series season is scheduled to begin at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia on 10-12 March.