One-two finish in Japan for Civic Type R TCR

A dominant one-two finish for the Honda Civic Type R TCR in Super Taikyu was the highlight of another impressive weekend for the JAS Motorsport-built car across the world.
 
Super Taikyu
Floral Racing with Uematsu leapt to the top of the ST-TCR points table with their second win of the year at Motegi, Japan, as Civic Type R TCRs scored a one-two finish.
 
Tadao Uematsu, Yuji Ide and Shintaro Kawabata qualified third and hit the front during the second half of the race; the trio finishing just seven seconds clear of the pole-sitting Dome Racing machine after five hours of close competition.
 
Dome’s quartet of Shinji Nakano, Hiroki Otsu, Mitsuhiro Endo and Syun Koide scored the multiple championship-winning team’s first podium of the year on their return to competition for the first time since the season-opening Fuji 24 Hours.
 
TCR Italy
JAS Motorsport Development Driver Jacopo Guidetti ended his season with an outstanding pole position and podium finish at Imola as MM Motorsport secured second place in the Teams’ Championship.
 
Guidetti and team-mate Jonathan Giacon battled hard in Race One, Giacon coming home second and Guidetti fourth.
 
Contact for Monza winner Giacon early in the season finale led to his eventual retirement with damage while Guidetti climbed from 11th at the end of the opening lap to finish third.
 
Series debutant Ibragim Akhmadov qualified 10th and produced two fine race drives, climbing to fifth in Race One and then going from outside the top 20 on the opening lap to to ninth on Sunday.
 
Macau Guia Race
Lo Sze Ho scored a magnificent podium finish on the streets of Macau to reward a superb effort by Maximum Racing.
 
The Hong Kong driver was the fastest Civic Type R TCR driver in qualifying in ninth spot and secured sixth in the qualifying race before keeping his nose clean while others dirtied theirs in the main event to finish on the podium in third place.
 
Team-mate Ivan Szeto, also driving an older FK2-model Civic, made progress across the weekend to finish 18th^.
 
While MacPro Racing Team’s Bebe Eurico was a strong sixth on Sunday with team-mate Ryan Wong - ninth in the qualifying race - eliminated on the opening lap of the main event.
 
The pair had run well in practice and qualified 10th and 14th for the former TCR China Teams’ Champions.
 
Team TRC’s James Tang recovered superbly from the back of the grid - a legacy of a retirement from the qualifying race - to finish 10th while team-mate Hung Chin Wong was caught up in a multi-car incident on the first lap on Saturday and did not start the main event.  

Main Tadao Uematsu/Shintaro Kawabata/Yuji Ide, Floral Racing with Uematsu Honda Civic Type R TCR, Super Taikyu, Motegi, Japan (credit: Super Taikyu); Lower 1 Shinji Nakano/Hiroki Otsu/Mitsuhiro Endo/Syun Koide, Dome Racing Team Honda Civic Type R TCR, Super Taikyu, Motegi, Japan (credit: Super Taikyu);  2(L) Jonathan Giacon, MM Motorsport Motorsport Honda Civic Type R TCR, TCR Italy, Imola, Italy (credit: ACI Sport); (R) Ibragim Akhmadov, MM Motorsport Motorsport Honda Civic Type R TCR, TCR Italy, Imola, Italy (credit: ACI Sport); 3 Jacopo Guidetti, MM Motorsport Motorsport Honda Civic Type R TCR, TCR Italy, Imola, Italy (credit: ACI Sport);  4 (L) Bebe Eurico, MacPro Racing Team Honda Civic Type R TCR, Macau Guia Race, Macau (credit: Macau GP); (R) Ryan Wong, MacPro Racing Team Honda Civic Type R TCR, Macau Guia Race, Macau (credit: Macau GP);  5 James Tang, Team TRC Honda Civic Type R TCR, Macau Guia Race, Macau (credit: Macau GP); 6(L) Hung Chin Wong, Team TRC Honda Civic Type R TCR, Macau Guia Race, Macau (credit: Macau GP); (R) Ivan Szeto, Maximum Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR, Macau Guia Race, Macau (credit: Macau GP).