China TCC: Changan Ford Racing 2010 season preview

Changan Ford Racing team: Marching into season five After successfully clinching the 2009 2000cc team title, the Changan Ford Racing team is marching into its' 5th CTCC/ CCC season fully prepared.

Operation team

The Changan Ford Racing team's management and technical group have established organic & efficient working relationship during the past 4 years and for 2010, the operation team will be basically the same with even more support on the technical side. The team will take further steps towards its professionalism process with even more specificed work responsibility ascription.

Driver line-up

During the 2009 season, CFMA and FRD took a risk and signed a very young team line-up which proved again the coexistence of opportunity and risk. Three out of four drivers from Changan Ford racing team gave their CTCC debut in 2009 and those young guns carried out the team's promise by clinching the team champion.

2010 season, young guns will stay: Rainey He, the lead-driver of the team who brings nice surprises constantly, will continue to lead the team with his signature consistency in Focus car No.1; Martin Cao, the brave yet resourceful "Changan Ford young driver development program" graduate, will grow stronger with Changan Ford racing team in 2010; With his steady performance, Tengyi Jiang will keep contributing points to the team in 2010; Andy Yan, the lead driver of new era in Hong Kong touring car racing, will continue to surprise CTCC with his strong sense of car set-up, sophisticated driving style and modest attitude. CFMA and FRD will keep supporting the "Changan Ford young guns" and star-pack them.

Team partners:

During the past years, win-win cooperative relations were established among CFMA, FRD and team partners. All the team partners will keep supporting the champion troop in 2010. CFMA's Focus car inherited Ford's sporty gene and achieved remarkable glories globally and Ford Focus is certainly a top choice to meet the demanding race performance purpose; BP and Castrol, old friends of the team, confirmed their full support to the team for 2010. Instead of the BP green sun flower pattern, the team will wear the "dark blue letters on green" logo in line with BP's new marketing strategy; Advanti started its working relationship with Changan Ford racing team in 2009 and with solid evidence of Advanti Rim's high performance and stability shown last year, the team is very happy to receive support from Advanti; TEIN suspension from Japan, another old friend, has worked with the team for many years and their product & tech-service have been of great support to the car's performance. CFMA and the team partners are pleased with the Changan Ford Racing team's performance and the positive image rate added to their brand.

Season goal

Team: aiming for the double title

Changan Ford racing team started its' performance at 2000cc class four years ago, clinched the team title two times and missed the driver title twice with weak points spread. Changan Ford racing team is aiming for the double title in 2010. Meanwhile, the team will take further step towards its professionalism operating and image building process.

Manufacture

The delicate economic situation in 2009 led to a rather conservative racing invest budget not only in CFMA, also the whole business. The outcome of 2009 Changan Ford racing team project shown that the team had overcame the difficulties smoothly and surpassed the expectation. For 2010, CFMA will increase the invest in motorsport at Changan Ford racing team project, on top of that, CFMA and FRD are working closely to confirm the "2010 Changan Ford Young driver development program" and in order to utilize the existing resource better from all parties, some new projects are under discussion.

The changes and the future of the championship

Shanghai Racing Automotive Culture Ltd., put a decent finale to the CTCC debut season, which boosted the teams & sponsors' confidence towards the championship. The close and effective working relationship formed between FASC and the event promoter is the basic criteria to better organize and promote the championship.

Eight events per year will certainly increase the team budget as well as the demand on both teams and drivers. Paul Hui, Changan Ford racing team project director, indicated during media interview:"Although the budget and demand are higher now, we are still glad to see the change of the championship. More events reduces the effect of the small probability event on the teams, thus the final results will better reflect the real capability of the teams. As for the drivers, more events will help them keep in shape for the season. Changan Ford drivers all race more than one championship during the season."

The Manufacture Cup raises the CTCC threshold and reduces the number of cars, especially for the less manufacture involving 2000cc class. Yet the Manufacture Cup suits better with all parties' long term interests as it will bring more strong teams to the competition, which will certainly contribute to a brighter future of CTCC. Rumor has it that a joint venture manufacture is very likely to enter the championship, which gives us more to expect from CTCC.

"One make tire" is another CTCC action that shows the sufficient cooperation between FASC and the promoter. Tire one-make allows the promoter to better utilize the existing resource to focus on one brand and promote it significantly. Meanwhile, "One make tire" will also bring profit to the promoter, so the promoter will have more budget to work with. As for the teams, although one-make tire causes a higher budget, but the closer fight it brings certainly worth our expectation.

-source: frd