Paul Poon defends title for China Dragon Racing in 2012 Macau Touring Car Cup

The CTM Macau Touring Car Cup features some of the best amateur racers coming from different parts of Asia. This year, 35 of the region's best touring car drivers were carefully invited to showcase their skills in the 12- lap event. The 2012 entry features cars from BMW, Chevrolet, Honda, and Toyota and is supported by CTM Macau.

A minute of silence was held before the race in memory of Phillip Yau who was tragically killed in a major crash on the Mandarin bend during the qualifying session. Yau is a veteran driver and winner of the 2011 Macau Roadsport Challenge race.

It was a 1-2 victory for the Hong Kong-based China Dragon Racing Team with Paul Poon emerging as the winner of the race ahead of his teammate Samson Fung. Running a pair of Chevrolet Lacettis, the duo was able to defend their title once again; Fung won in last year's event. The pair crossed the finish line ahead of Michael Choi, Jeronimo Badaraco, and Kenneth Lau, all in their Honda Accord CL7s. Filipino driver Ferdinand Pastor of Team Coca-Cola TEC- Pilipinas managed to finished 10^th place out of the 27 drivers who started the race.

It was a smooth start from the grid with Poon leading the pack ahead of Fung. Trailing the front-runners were Hideharu Kuroki and Jeronimo Badaraco who fell back down the field from third position. There was action in the midfield halfway through the race until the safety car was deployed for 4 laps due to a car crash. As soon as the race was restarted on lap 9, Andy Yan took full advantage of the situation and put Poon under constant pressure all the way to the finish with only 0.2 sec separating the two drivers. His teammate Fung has suffered mechanical failures and was forced to retire from the race. Choi finished third position, Badaraco in fourth and Kenneth Lau in fifth.

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