The Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Presented by AximTrade wrapped up its historic 18th season at Shanghai international Circuit from 29-31 October. With the Porsche Sportscar Together Day taking over Shanghai Circuit, and the Porsche Sports Cup China also holding its finale, this weekend proved to be Porsche China’s the biggest motorsport event of the year. With a tight race for the championship at the top of the points table, the scene was set for a nail-biting finale…

Pole position, fastest lap, and a victory in a lockout race for Leo Ye

Having claimed the fastest lap in Round 2 during the series’ previous stop in Shanghai, BD Group’s Leo Ye claimed pole position for Round 13 with his time of 2:06.379. Current points-leader Team Jebsen’s Daniel Lu Wenlong started in second, while his closest championship rival Porsche Holding’s Cui Yue started in third. All three top drivers scored a sub-2:07.00 lap time, with Daniel and Cui separated by just one one-hundredth of a second.

The lights extinguished and Leo Ye made a strong start, pulling ahead early on. After the chaos out of the grid at the last stop, our drivers were back on familiar turf at Shanghai International Circuit, with all drivers making it clean out of the gate. Leo spent his race untroubled up at the front, seeing his lead extend to five seconds by the race’s halfway point, and finishing the race with a flawless lights-to-flag victory. The two championship points leaders, Daniel Lu and Cui Yue, were locked in a furious battle for P2, spending the entire race with less than half a second between them. Daniel Lu found some pace in the last few laps, eating away at Leo’s lead, but it wasn’t enough, and he eventually finished in second, extending his championship lead over third-place finisher Cui Yue to nine points.

TORO Racing’s Min Heng took Pro-Am pole, with Meidong Racing’s Zhou Bihuang in P2. Team Shanghai Yonda’s Bao Jinlong – reigning two-time Pro-Am champion and current points leader – scored an impressive qualifying time, but started the race in third due to a penalty from the previous stop. The top three Pro-Am drivers stayed roughly in the same position for the first half of the race, before Bao started moving up the field in the second half, overtaking Zhou Bihuang. Min Heng, who scored two second-place finishes at the season’s previous Shanghai stop, took advantage of his experience with this track and scored his first victory of the season. Bao finished in second, his championship points lead remaining untroubled, while Zhou Bihuang crossed the finish line third, however received a 5-second post-race penalty and ceded his third-place podium position to Absolute Racing’s Bian Ye.

The Am line up started with the familiar sight of KiddyWorld Racing’s Eric Kwong in pole position, with a time of 2:09.648, placing him three grid-positions higher than P2 Am starter Henry Kwong from Triple Ace Racing. As has been the script for this season so far, Eric and Henry spent the race battling each other, with Eric pulling ahead by the halfway point and opening up a 5-second lead. Henry managed to claw his way back up however, and gave us one of the season’s photo-finish moments, by crossing the finish line just three one-thousandths of a second behind first-place finisher Eric. The final spot on the podium was occupied by ZZRT Competizione’s Wu Jiaxin.

Daniel Lu and Cui Yue neck-and-neck in championship points after Round 14

Leo Ye was the pole sitter once again starting the season’s penultimate race, with Team StarChase’s Yu Kuai in P2 and Cui Yue in P3. Current season points-leader Daniel Lu started his race back in P5, leaving him with a daunting number of entrants ahead of him. Leo Ye showed his Shanghai mastery once again, making a strong start to the race and remaining unbothered by the other drivers until he crossed the finish line to seal his second victory of the stop. Cui Yue, with his eyes on the prize and 9 points separating him from the championship, made a storming start out of the gate, leaping up into P2 and supplanting Yu Kuai. A solid performance for the remainder of the race saw little change from the lap 1 line-up, with Cui coming in second and Yu Kuai taking third. Daniel Lu, who entered this race as the championship points leader, was forced to watch the action unfold from P5, a position he languished in for the full race, finishing in the position he started. This stunning upset saw Cui pull level with Daniel Lu in the championship points, with both drivers going into the finale tied on 258 points apiece.

Bao Jinlong began the race in Pro-Am P1, with Porsche Beijing Central & Goldenport’s Li Chao two grid positions behind him in Pro-Am P2, and Bian Ye in Pro-Am P3. With more series starts than any other driver this season, Li Chao leveraged his experience at Shanghai to leapfrog three positions on the first lap, taking him ahead of Bao Jinlong. Bao had managed to return to the front of the pack by lap 3 however, and raced defensively for the remaining nine laps, sealing both the Pro-Am victory and the Pro-Am championship in one fell swoop. Bao’s victory here sees him become the first ever Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Presented by AximTrade Pro-Am three-time champion. Bian Ye came in second, while Li Chao claimed third.

Once again, Eric Kwong started the race in Am pole, however his leading position wasn’t to last, with Henry Kwong beating him in to Am P1 out of the grid. With Wu Jiaxin snapping at their heels, the two brothers once again found themselves locked in a battle for P1. Having raced an incredibly tight race, Henry crossed the finish line slightly before Eric, with Wu Jiaxin occupying the third place on the podium. This victory assured Eric’s championship, making him the inaugural winner of the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Presented by AximTrade’s Am category.

And our Overall Champion is…

The finale of the 2021 Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Presented by AximTrade once again saw Leo Ye on pole. The BD Group driver has had his best stop of the season, claiming pole position three times and winning the first two races. All eyes, however, were on the P2 and P3 starters. Daniel Lu and Cui Yue, both series veterans, tied on 258 points apiece going in to this nail-biting finale.

Leo Ye set the pace once again coming out of the gate, his storming start yet again taking him far out front and already beginning to develop his lead. Daniel and Cui shot out after, each driver knowing they didn’t need a victory this Round, they just needed to finish ahead of each other. By the race’s halfway point, Daniel was trailing race leader Leo Ye by two and a half seconds, while Cui had dropped to 5 seconds behind Daniel. Cui Yue saw his wheels lock up twice on lap 7, extending Daniel’s lead over him. Going into the final lap, Daniel was four seconds behind Leo and eight seconds ahead of Cui. As had looked inevitable all race, Leo crossed the finish line first, Daniel crossed second and Cui crossed third. A post-race penalty saw Leo Ye earn a disqualification for this race, meaning that Daniel won both the final race and the season championship.

With Bao Jinlong having already sealed the championship in the previous race, Min Heng and Zhou Bihuang were left to battle it out for the Pro-Am championship second place, with Zhou ahead by 8 championship points going into the race. Min Heng started on pole position, adding another point to his tally and lessening Zhou’s lead by one. Bao Jinlong started in second, Bian Ye in third and Zhou Bihuang in fourth. Zhou had a strong start, moving up the grid by overtaking Bian Ye to sit behind Bao Jinlong. Min Heng had an even more impressive start, jumping ahead of Pro drivers to sit in overall P6. Min Heng put in a flawless performance, earning his second victory of the season and taking second in the season championship. Bao Jinlong came in second, his championship status already secured. While Zhou came in third, also claiming the third place in the season championship.

With Eric Kwong having secured the championship at the previous race, and Henry Kwong having already secured the second place in the championship, there was still no let-up in the rivalry between the Kwong brothers. Eric started on pole, however by the end of lap 5 Henry had managed to supplant the points-leader and sneak into Am P1. With Li Jia threatening their rear from P3, Henry and Eric once again had a battle for first place. Despite a number of noble efforts, Eric saw the door slam shut on him at every turn, and Henry eventually took the victory, with Eric following close behind and Li Jia claiming the final podium spot.

Team Jebsen take home the championship and the Dealer Trophy

After a hard fought season, the white and blue Jebsen car has come through victorious. Having been neck-and-neck with Porsche Holding all year long, driver Daniel Lu Wenlong was finally able to achieve a decisive victory in the final rounds. With just four points separating the top two, Porsche Holding and their driver Cui Yue still have a lot to be proud of this season. Team StarChase, who won the Dealer Trophy in 2019, came in a respectable third, while two newcomers to the season – BD Group and Meidong Racing – round out the top five.