Absolute Racing drivers Min Heng and Liu Hangcheng faced a gruelling, typhoon-disrupted round three of the China GT Championship at Zhuhai International Circuit.
Even before the cars reached the track, history had already been made: the weekend marked the first appearance of an iconic Gulf Oil livery on a Chinese motorsport entry. The landmark car came about through another collaboration between Absolute Racing and diecast model manufacturer Almost Real.
Across Saturday morning's two qualifying sessions, both drivers gave everything in sweltering heat, pushing themselves and their machinery to the limit in search of optimal pace ahead of the races.
As Typhoon Noul made landfall in southern China, however, conditions at Zhuhai International Circuit worsened steadily in the build-up to Saturday afternoon's opening race. Persistent heavy rain brought significant standing water and badly reduced visibility, ruling out safe racing. After a thorough assessment, the Race Direction cancelled the first GT3 race under force majeure, prioritising the safety of drivers, team personnel and spectators.
Sunday's second race was likewise disrupted by the typhoon warning, with the start put back to 2.15pm. With conditions still far from settled beforehand, tyre selection loomed as the defining call of the race. Drawing on their drivers' reconnaissance laps and the latest forecasts, Absolute Racing chose to start on wets, aware that any mid-race tyre change would carry a 50-second penalty.
The Safety Car led the field away to get race two under way, with Min Heng quickly finding his feet and working steadily through the pack.
True to form, Heng produced composed, consistent opening stints, sticking precisely to the team's plan and staying within touch of his rivals. On lap nine, the rain everyone had been expecting finally arrived, sending the pit crew scrambling to respond to the shifting conditions.
The downpour then intensified further, and the race was red-flagged on safety grounds. Unfortunately, during the stoppage, Race Control permitted teams to change tyres and drivers without applying the time penalty otherwise required under the sporting regulations, and offered no clear guidance before the restart on how the tyre-change rules, or any associated penalties, would be enforced.
This lack of clarity, in both the application of the regulations and the communication of procedure, left crews that had correctly gambled on wet-weather tyres at a clear disadvantage. The strategic advantage they had earned through an accurate read of the conditions was effectively wiped out. As a result, those crews were left to contend with the worsening track in the race's early stages, only to then lose the competitive edge they had built once racing resumed.
Following a stoppage of close to an hour, conditions eased enough for racing to resume, under a shortened format of 27 minutes plus one lap to decide the result.
Despite the setbacks and persistently tricky conditions, second-stint driver Liu Hangcheng kept fighting for every place on offer. The Chinese driver was solid after the restart, but late-race incidents brought out two more Safety Car periods, however, breaking up the flow of the race and capping any further gains.
At the finish, Liu Hangcheng brought the No. 22 Gulf Oil-liveried Porsche 911 GT3 R EVO (992) home in sixth place in the AM+ class.
The China GT Championship returns to Shanghai International Circuit for round four of the season on 4–6 September.
