Infinity's Sobue and Matsukura went 1-2 at opening round of inaugural Chinese Electric Touring Car Championship

ADVERTISEMENT | ADVERTISE WITH US

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Press release from Infinity - Creation Model:
www.creationmodel.net

Sobue leads Infinity 1-2 at opening CETC round

The all new CETC (Chinese Electric Touring Car Championship) got underway last weekend with Japan’s Akio Sobue leading an Infinity 1-2 from Naoto Matsukura at the opening round.  Taking place at the new Amazing Indoor Arena track in Guangzhou, it was Sobue who was first to master the indoor asphalt track putting his Infinity ProtoTC at the top of the times in seeding practice. As the well attended event switched to qualifying, the Japanese driver’s form continued as he TQ’d the first of the four rounds by 5-seconds from Naoki Akiyama and Nicolas Lee. With Q2 bringing the first day of action to a close, an early mistake by Sobue allowed Akiyama to take the TQ ahead of Viktor Wilck as he recovered to get to P3. Day 2 would open with a third different driver topping the times as former World Champion Matsukura TQ’d ahead of Lee, Sobue and Wilck. This set the stage for an exciting deciding qualifier between the five World Championship finalists but Sobue was back on form taking the fourth & final round to secure the overall TQ.  In the finals, an incident packed A1 wouldn’t effect the Top Qualifier as he cruised to victory ahead of Wilck. A2 would prove somewhat more dramatic however for Sobue. Leading the field from Matsukura who had got by Akiyama, Sobue would roll his ProtoTC onto its roof.  Unable to avoid the stricken car, Matsukura would crash into it, the contact putting Sobue's car back on its wheels but leaving Matsukura needing to be marshalled.  Continuing the race Sobue would get the win to claim the overall victory acknowledging his team-mate’s assistance with the win afterwards.  With Sobue able to watch A3 from the sideline, Matsukura delivered an Infinity 1-2 result in style winning the final encounter in the fastest time of the weekend ahead of Wilck who would complete the podium. Round 2 of the CETC presented by Infinity will take place on June 3-4 at ARC International Raceway where Sobue will be looking to extend his early championship lead.