Liam Sceats has taken a triumphant victory in Race 2 in Shanghai, with Chris van der Drift making it a Kiwi 1-2 whilst taking another class victory in Pro-Am.
Sceats and Wisniewski’s championship rivals, William Tregurtha and Jonathan Cecotto, started from pole, with Van der Drift and Todd Kingsford qualifying third, with Sceats and Wisniewski starting sixth.
Off the start, Cecotto was able to hold the lead, while Van der Drift was able to move up to second place after getting past Peter Li. Wisnewski started the race for #6 car, and remained in sixth place through the initial opening laps.
Cecotto started to pull away from the drivers behind him, but his race was stopped after a mechanical failure forced him to retire from the lead. This promoted Van der Drift to the lead and moved Wisnewski up to fifth.
Van der Drift soon started to pull away, and held a two and a half second lead with thirty-five minutes to go. With thirty minutes remaining, the #77 car ended up beached in the gravel, bringing out the full course yellow. In a bid to minimise time lost in the lane, all drivers piled in for a driver change.
With twenty-six minutes to go, Van der Drift jumped out of the car, handing the #98 over to Kingsford, while Sceats jumped in for Wisniewski. The full course yellow ended with twenty-two minutes remaining, and Sceats immediately started to show his pace as he moved into third with fifteen minutes remaining.
Sceats soon closed up to the back of Li, and they started to duel for the Pro class win. It did not take long for Sceats to get into the class lead, and he soon focused on chasing down Kingsford in a bid for the overall lead.
The Kiwi managed to cut the gap down from a second and a half with seven minutes to go, and was able to make a move on Kingsford with four minutes remaining to take the overall lead.
Kingsford soon fell under significant pressure from Titus Sherlock, as their battle went down to the line – with Kingsford able to hold on.
Kingsford was unable to match the pace of Sceats, and the young Kiwi brought home another overall victory, with Kingsford and Van der Drift taking the Pro-Am title, making it a Team VSR sweep.
The retirement of Cecotto and Tregurtha has allowed Sceats and Wisnewski to close the championship gap to just six points. The title will be decided in the final round at Monza, with racing starting on the 22nd of October.
