ATCC: Bira round five race notes

Lo Ka Chun wins incident filled race

Red flags disrupted Round 5 of the Asian Touring Car Series today, with Team 778 Autosport's Lo Ka Chun emerging victorious in Division 1 ahead of local favourite Kirakiat Yenmanoj and Chen Jun San of Taiwan.

In a thrilling and incident-filled race, pole-sitter Naoya Yamano of Japan started brilliantly and pulled away from Jun San and Seijiro Sawa of Japan.

However the race was halted in lap 12 after a collision between Sawa and Thai driver Aparthon Karnaputa that resulted in Sawa crashing into the tyre barriers which ended his race. The race was restarted and run for a further 7 laps with grid positions determined from the order at the end of lap 11.

"I was very surprised with this victory," said Lo. "With a lot of cars crashing and spinning, I just took the chances that came my way," he said.

Kirakiat, who had to settle for 2nd place in his home race paid tribute to Lo who kept the Thai behind him until the chequered flag. "He drove a fantastic race and didn't leave the door open at all for me to pass - not once!" he said.

At the restart, Yamano took off with Chen close behind. The two were involved in a spectacular collision which ended Chen's race. Chen was less than impressed after the race, claiming Yamano should have been more careful when attempting an overtaking maneuver on a difficult circuit.

To the delight of the home crowd, Aparthorn claimed Division 2 honours ahead of veteran Team IMSP driver Danny Stacy Chau and Junichi Koizumi of Japan. "I'm very happy to have won and felt I was lucky on many occasions especially after the incident with Sawa which was, in my point of view, a racing incident," said Aparthon. Chau was philosophical about the outcome of the race. "I gave it my best today and hope for a better outcome in tomorrow's race" said Chau.

In accordance with the regulations, the final result was taken as the aggregate of the two-part race.

Round 6 of the Asian Touring Car Series will be held tomorrow, July 20, over 20 laps of the 2.4km Bira Circuit in Pattaya, Thailand.

<pre> Results, Round 5

Division 1 1. 77 LO Ka Chun (HKG) Honda Integra DC2 778 Autosport 2. 29 Kirakiat YENMANOJ (THA) Toyota Altezza 3 Crowns Racing 3. 36 CHEN Jun San (TWN) Toyota Altezza CPC-AAI 4. 93 Jakthong NAVASOOPANICH (THA) Toyota Altezza Team Soopanava 5. 11 Phillip YAU (HKG) Honda Integra DC5 Team IMSP DNF 16 Gary SHAM (HKG) Honda Integra DC2 3 Crowns Racing 21 Naoya YAMANO(JPN) Honda Integra DC5 Ao's Racing

Division 2 1. 77 Apathorn KARNAPUTA (THA) Honda Civic EK9 Privateer 2. 29 Danny Stacy CHAU (HKG) Honda Civic EG6 Team IMSP 3. 22 Junichi KOIZUMI (JPN) Honda Civic EK9 Ao's Racing DNF 38 SAWA Seijiro (JPN) Honda Civic EK9 Select RacingTeam 66 LO Hung Pui (HKG) Honda Civic EK4 778 Autosport 55 Shunei KAWASAKI (JPN) Honda Civic ED4 Ao's Racing DNS 10 Somchai SAKSIRIVETUL (THA) Honda Civic EG6 Privateer

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