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7
STANDINGS
INTERNATIONAL SERIES
Macau – even more
of a lottery than usual
The former Portuguese colony of Macau provided the venue for
the final pair of races in the 2016 TCR International series. The
Guia street circuit is regarded as one of the toughest motorsport
venues in the world and one that usually provides more than its
fair share of drama. Sadly, the two 2016 races more than lived up
to that unpredictable reputation…
An insistence by the organizing committee that cars from other
Touring Car championships be allowed to enter raised eyebrows
beforehand, but a spate of incidents involving those competitors
meant only a handful of competitive laps were possible in both
races. So few laps were completed, in fact, that only half points
were awarded in each race.
Contact between James Nash and Mat’o Homola in Race 1
effectively ended the British driver’s title hopes. The Craft-
Bamboo Lukoil team was able to repair Nash’s SEAT, but victory
for Stefano Comini in Race 1 meant fourth place in Race 2 was
enough for the Swiss driver to retain his title. At the end of the
season, just three and a half points separated Comini and Nash,
with Jean-Karl Vernay finishing in third place ahead of Pepe
Oriola. While guest star Tiago Monteiro had the last word and won
the second race in a WestCoast Racing Honda Civic.
Traffic jam at the
Lisboa bend
Negotiating the
Melco hairpin
in single file