Guia Race
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The Guia Race (東望洋大賽) is an international touring car race run during the Macau Grand Prix weekend. Since 2005, it has become the final round of the World Touring Car Championship, also known as the WTCC.
The race has been won by international touring car greats such as Tom Walkinshaw, Johnny Cecotto, Roberto Ravaglia, Joachim Winkelhock and Andy Priaulx.
Historically it is also one of the most popular races of the weekend as it featured cars that are commonly seen on the Hong Kong and Macau roads.
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[edit] Championship status
The Guia Race has twice become an FIA Championship round. In 1994, it was a round of the Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship and from 2005, it has become a round of the World Touring Car Championship.
The race also acted as a point scoring round for the Asia Touring Car Championship from 2000 to 2003.
[edit] Technical regulation changes
The race has run to different touring car rules as European touring car championships went through their own changes. The race was run to European Group 5 regulations in the early eighties, then adopted FIA Group A rules between 1983 and 1990. It then ran to DTM rules from 1991 to 1993 before changing to Super Touring rules in 1994. From 2000, it started using Super Production regulations until 2005, when it sampled Super 2000 machinery before being upgraded to a round of the FIA WTCC.
[edit] Sporting regulation changes
The race has changed in format over the years, from the 30 lapper back in the Group A era to the current, double race format with each race lasting 9 laps.
[edit] Sponsors
The race has been sponsored by the Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM) since 2004. STDM boss Stanley Ho has presented the trophies to the race winners on the podium since the sponsorship began.
[edit] Results
[edit] Most wins
[edit] By driver
- 4 wins
- Image:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Duncan Huisman (2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005-Race 2)
- 3 wins
- Image:Flag of Hong Kong 1959.svg Peter Chow (1973, 1977 and 1978)
- 2 wins
- Image:Flag of Japan (bordered).svg Nobuhide Tachi (1974 and 1975)
- Image:Flag of Germany.svg Herbert Adamzyck (1976 and 1979)
- Image:Flag of Germany.svg Hans Joachim Stuck (1980 and 1983)
- Image:Flag of Italy.svg Emanuele Pirro (1991 and 1992)
- Image:Flag of Germany.svg Joachim Winkelhock (1994 and 1998)
- Image:Flag of Germany.svg Jörg Müller (2004 and 2006-Race 2)
[edit] By nationality of driver
- 13 wins
- Image:Flag of Germany.svg Germany (1976, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2006-Race 2)
- 5 wins
- Image:Flag of Hong Kong 1959.svg Hong Kong (1972, 1973, 1977, 1978 and 1993)
- Image:Flag of the Netherlands.svg The Netherlands (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005-Race 2)
- Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg The United Kingdom (1984, 1989, 1995, 1997 and 2006-Race 1)
- 4 wins
- Image:Flag of Italy.svg Italia (1985, 1987, 1991 and 1992)
- 3 Wins
- Image:Flag of Japan (bordered).svg Japan (1974, 1975 and 1990)
- 1 Win
- Image:Flag of Venezuela.svg Venezuela (1986)
- Image:Flag of Brazil.svg Brazil (2005-Race 1)
[edit] By manufacturer
- 19 wins
- BMW (1980, 1981, 1983, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005-Race 2, 2006-Race 1 and 2006-Race 2)
- 6 wins
- Toyota (1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978 and 1995)
- 3 wins
- Porsche (1976, 1979 and 1982)
- 2 wins
- 1 win
- Austin (1972)
- Jaguar (1984)
- Ford (1989)
- Nissan (1990)
- Alfa Romeo (2005-Race 1)
[edit] Trivia
- BMW has taken part in every modern edition of the race with its teams except 1986, when its slow starting 635 CSi was deemed to be at a disadvantage against the Volvo 240 Turbo.
- Charles Kwan was the only Hong Kong winner of the modern edition of the race in 1993, when he drove a DTM specification BMW M3 and beat the European teams who were running Super Touring race cars.
- The year after Roberto Ravaglia won the 1987 race, he was unable to defend his Macau win due to breaking his rib in a road accident driving his Fiat Uno.
- The 1990 race was however marred by controversy after the Nissan Skyline GT-R of Masahiro Hasemi, led the race from start to finish. For the following year, the car was forced to compete with 140kg extra weight and the disgruntled Hasemi was forced to settle for forth against the DTM specification racers and had his weight penalty reduced for the following year after protests.[1] The car also led to similar controversies in Australia.
- No French driver has ever won the Guia Race, a small surprise considering that all the traditional motorsport countries such as Germany, Italy, Britain, Japan and Brazil have all had drivers won the race before.
- Despite the massive popularity of Honda's touring race cars, Honda has never won the Guia Race.
