Audi RS 3 LMS #36 (TSRT Zuver Team), Billy Lo

Macau GP still a WTCR season highlight despite not being the season finale

This year’s Guia Race once again features the newest international touring car format for the second time: the WTCR ⎼ FIA World Touring Car Cup.

The Guia Race will count as a round of its 2019 season, which sees the prestigious international field compete across three continents before arriving in Macau. However, this time Macau won’t host the WTCR season-finale.

Having welcomed back the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in 2017 when Rob Huff bagged a record ninth win, Macau hosted the thrilling seven-way inaugural WTCR season showdown in November 2018 when Gabriele Tarquini took the title. In 2019, the home of the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix from 1999-2017, the Sepang International Circuit will host the WTCR season two super-finale instead. 

WTCR promoter Eurosport Events didn’t waste the opportunity of running an event under a unique format with one of the three races taking place under floodlights at night as part of an exciting double-header with the FIM Endurance World Championship for motorbikes on December 14 and 15.

“Sepang event is a double-header featuring two series promoted by Eurosport Events, the FIM Endurance World Championship and WTCR, the most appropriate period to schedule the event was mid-December to allow Japanese motorbike teams to attend the event, which is a qualifying round for all Asian teams who want to race in the 8 Hours of Suzuka in July 2020”, explained to MNA, François Ribeiro, the CEO of Eurosport Events.

The fact that Macau won’t host the season finale this year it doesn’t mean that the Grand Prix is no longer as attractive as it was for the championship that brings together the greatest names in “tin top” competition. On the contrary, the Macau Guia Race is still one of the highlights of the WTCR season. 

“Despite the Macau event is not the finale, it is still one of the most exciting events in the season as Macau is a legendary street circuit”, asserts Ribeiro.

Six local wild card entries makes it 32 cars on the grid for the WTCR races at Macau, the biggest grid of the season so far.