With Daohe Group as its exclusive title sponsor, the second round of 2016/2017 Asian Le Mans Series completed its battle in Fuji Speedway on December 4th. DH Racing, jointly established by Daohe Group and Ferrari, finished first and fifth position in the GT category, rising up the China’s national flag there. Thanks to the achievements, DH Racing now leads the championship. Again, DH Racing not only showcased the spirit of Le Mans with the team’s strength, wisdom, perseverance and confidence, but also provided the motorsport feast to the fans in Asia and the world.
DH Racing is an international and professional racing team jointly established by Daohe Group and Ferrari. Ferrari values this cooperation very much and assigned the remarkable Amato Ferrari to help run DH Racing. The line-up consisted of six drivers from Belgium, Italy, France, Spain and Monaco. With the backup of strong operation and world champions, with the team’s confidence and performance, DH Racing took a competitive battle in Fuji.
Through the race in Zhuhai, the drivers’ collaboration are further improved. In the qualifying session of Fuji on December 3rd, #5 of DH racing made the second fastest lap time in GT category, while #3 make the fifth. Endurance race is always a huge test for every driver in terms of the speed and stamina. For the entire team, the wisdom and perseverance is particularly important.
In the first lap of the race, DH Racing was not in the pursuit of speed and ranking as the ultimate goal, but chose the right speed to fully warm the tire. In the second lap, two cars began to accelerate forward. The team got ready in the formation lap, showing its very experienced and stable status.
During the four-hour race, the Ferrari 488 GT3 selected by DH Racing showed its powerful performance. Thanks to Ferrari’s larger fuel tanks and efficiency, the team was able to save quite a lot pit stop time. The team used a good time-saving pit stop strategy, saving like two minutes for fueling compared with other cars.
When the race saw its remaining an-hour-and-thirty-eight minutes, the spectators witnessed an amazing battle for the lead of GT category between #37 and #5 of DH Racing, driven by Michele Rugolo and Matthieu Vaxiviere. Firstly, #5 overtook #37 with a better pace, but #37 immediately got back the lead in the next minute. Michele Rugolo took his time, adjusted, accelerated and overtook #37 calmly in the corner, showing his mental stability. The commentator and the fans all felt the exciting and thrilling moment lively. Since DH Racing’s silver driver Michele Rugolo is very popular in Japan, we can see lots of fans there expressing their support with their banners and applause in the 4 Hours of Fuji.
After 4 hours strong battle, #5 of DH Racing finished as the winner of GT category and fifth overall, among 13 GT cars from a full line-up of 27 speed machines. Top four were LMP2s, while the fastest LMP3 finished sixth overall. That is to say, 5# of DH Racing got a faster pace than LMP3 cars in Fuji, which is an incredible result and a big reward for the team.
Jiang Dong, president of Daohe Group，presented the awards to the GT and GTCup teams. Jiang also received EPM’s live interviews. He said, “Thanks to DH Racing and the drivers’ efforts to win the championship with wisdom, confidence and perseverance. The two cars didn’t run into any problems. We are lucky, but it is the strength bringing us here. I believe that through the experience of Zhuhai and the teamwork in Fuji, we will be more confident in the rest rounds in Thailand and Malaysia.”
As the exclusive title sponsor of 2016/2017 Asian Le Mans Series, Daohe Group is committed to bring China’s motorsport industry to go globally. Meanwhile, through practical actions, Daohe Group also integrates multi-resources, promote the relevant industries and boost the motorsport development in China. This time, through its own powerful media resources and integration of the global coverage of foreign media resources of Le Mans race events, Daohe Group keeps expanding its influence, shining the brand in Japan.
As we all know, China’s motorsport industry is still in the early stage of development. There is a long way to go before it becomes a popular sport fully accepted and participated proactively by the publci. The title sponsorship with Asian Le Mans Series, the establishment of DH Racing together with Ferrari, as well as other activities are all strong evidences showing Daohe’s confidence and commitment to invest on motorsport. Meanwhile, Daohe is also putting the promotion of China’s motorsport into practice. It keeps seeking a way to combine the public needs for sports and the mass consumption market, in order to form a new sports ecology circle with motorsports as the core, covering the catering, exhibition, entertainment, tourism, culture, training and other industries.
DH Racing ranked first in the Asian Le Mans Series. We wish DH Racing continue to succeed in the championship battles the following rounds of 2016/2017 Asian Le Mans Series in Thailand and Malaysia.