Speed Demons (City Weekend) Updated: 2006-06-09 09:03
 Yan Lu, team manager of China's first international racing team,
SCC, is a man on a mission. "China needs a racing hero, an international
champion," he says, eyes gleaming.
His team is competing in the high profile Porsche Carrera Cup Asia and, like
all racing teams everywhere, they aim to win. The Cup sees drivers pit identical
porsches against each other over 60 zippy kilometers of bitumen.
The
prestigious race is coming to town on the weekend of June 10-11 as part of the
Asian Festival of Speed, an annual event guaranteed to unite the speed demons of
Beijing together in their love of fast cars and tarmac.
Asia's most
talented racing stars and racing teams will converge on the city to compete in
the fifth and sixth rounds of this event, which tours Asian cities from March to
November every year. Drivers will test their pluck and reflexes in one of the
three races held over the weekend, the Asian Touring Car Championship, Formula
BMW Asia and the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia. The aim of each round? To accumulate
as many points as possible in order to win the whole series.
The SCC team, with Thai driver Charoensukhawatana Nattavude, will be gunning
for victory against this year's favorite, Team Jebsen from Hong Kong. The team
was born in 2004 when Yan Lu was struck by a sudden realization during China's
first Formula 1 race in Shanghai. "I was very excited but the old man next to me
was sleeping. That's when I realized I was excited but China wasn't excited," he
said. "So I decided to build an international racing team because racing won't
become popular until China has an international champion."
With just three months to put his team together before the start of the
Porsche Carrera Cup, Yan Lu says he sold his company, his house and some of his
cars to raise funds to finance his dream. A few months later, Yan Lu's team made
it to the Cup, where they led the competition throughout the early rounds until
a broken brake disc brought them unstuck in Shanghai and they finished a close
second overall. But win or no win, he's happy to see interest in the sport
growing in China.
"A lot of people want to go racing, that's why you get illegal racing on the
second ring road," he says. "I tell them don't go illegal racing, come to the
legal races and learn more about the sport."
The Asian Festival of Speed Time: June 10 -
11 Location: Golden Port Circuit, Jinzhanxiang Beijing Tel:
010-8432-0199
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