Press

>BlackArts Racing takes 5th straight AFR Driver’s Championship and 4th straight Team Championship
>Joey Alders dominates both races in OLOI Powered by BAR Formula Renault 2.0 to make five wins in a row
>Sandro Tavartkiladze takes podium in race two with brilliant final lap pass and takes 3rd Overall in 2019 Championship
>Stephen Hong takes 5th Overall in 2019 Championship
>Patrick Tsang takes Elite Class & Masters wins for race two

Zhuhai International Circuit–

This weekend, Zhuhai International Circuit held the fifth and final round of the 2019 Asia Formula Renault [AFR] Championship, during the Circuit Hero 700kms Endurance Race Weekend.

BlackArts Racing featured its season drivers Joey Alders [Netherlands], Stephen Hong [China] and Sandro Tavartkiladze [Republic of Georgia] in the Pro Class and Patrick Tsang [HK] in the Formula Renault Elite Class.

In Friday’s Official Practice, Alders and ART’s Bruno Carneiro traded off for fastest laps as they alternated new verses old slick tires, with Sandro Tavartkiladze taking to the top 3 and Stephen Hong to the top 5 in the cool sunny conditions of the race weekend.

In Qualifying early Saturday morning, drivers struggled to get heat in the tires in the low temperatures. Alders took Race One Pole Position in the OLO Powered by BAR car, with Tavartkiladze and Hong taking 4th and 6th respectively, up against the strong competition of ex-F3 drivers Carneiro and Peter Li.

In Race One held late Saturday afternoon, Alders got off to a fantastic start and led the race to the checkered flag, taking the win and with it, the 2019 Asia Formula Renault Drivers Championship. The race win also gave the final team points needed for BlackArts Racing to seal the 2019 Team Championship. With it, BAR took its 5th straight Driver’s Championship and 4th straight Team Championship in the highly-competitive Asia Formula Renault Series. Meanwhile Tavartkiladze and Hong finished 4th and 5th for Race One, though a safety car period was called midway through the race as Patrick Tsang had spun in T14 and impacted the wall to DNF.

Race Two was held early Sunday morning, after BAR mechanics worked late into the evening to fix Tsang’s B Class Formula Renault. Under cold conditions and Alders starting in P3 on the grid due to the qualifying results for Race Two, the Dutch driver charged up the field immediately to take the lead by turn four and kept the lead to cross the checkered for the win, making a dominating clean sweep for the final five races over the last two rounds of the season. Meanwhile, Stephen Hong held off a closely following Ni Weiliang after Hong had flat spotted his tires, but Hong managed to hold off the Singaporean to finish 5th. Sandro Tavartkiladze had spent the race in 4th, chasing down Peter Li for the podium, but it wasn’t until the final lap, with just two turns to go, that Tavartkiladze made a daring tire smoking daring pass on Li under braking, then held off the Chinese driver to take 3rd on the podium. Patrick Tsang took home the win in the Elite Class, and with it the Masters Trophy.

Thanks to strong results from Sandro Tavartkiladze of the Republic of Georgia, the talented young driver finished 3rd overall in the 2019 Asia Formula Renault Championship with Bruno Carneiro finishing 2nd overall. Meanwhile Stephen Hong of China finished a strong 5th despite two DNFs earlier in the season which cost valuable points.

This week, the action continues for BAR at the Sepang International F1 Circuit as newly-crowned AFR Champ Joey Alders heads to Sepang tomorrow to take on Round One of the 2020 Asian F3 Certified by FIA Championship, December 13th-15th, joined by teammates Thomas Luedi and Yu Kanamaru.

DRIVER QUOTES

Sandro Tavartkiladze: "It was my first international season in racing and I think it went quite well. I have learned a lot but there is still big work to do. The last weekend wasn’t perfect because it took time to get up to speed, but i am happy that pace was there at last. I want to thank the whole BLACKARTS RACING team for an amazing season, amazing car and all the support, and I hope i continue racing with them in the near future. Third in the drivers championship for the debut season is not too bad!"

Joey Alders: "What a weekend to finish the championship. Massive thanks to the whole team of BlackArts Racing for a great season. I have learned a lot and made a big amount of progress, let's keep building this up next week in the first round of the Formule 3 Winter series!"

_______

OLOI, Inc, the primary team sponsor of BlackArts Racing, is a San Francisco-based motorsports-inspired line of apparel which focuses on blending performance with time-proven classics in its product line. Please support the OLOI brand by subscribing to their website for more details and exciting promotional offers. For more information on OLOI, please visit: http://www.OLOIinc.com or on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/oloiinc/.

BlackArts Racing is a China / Hong Kong registered motor racing team that was formed in January, 2015. Its main operational headquarters are located within the Zhuhai International Circuit, in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province [bordering Macau] and the famous Sepang International F1 Circuit in Malaysia. The team’s business operations predominantly focus on professional racing series in Asia including F3 Asian Championship, Asian Formula Renault Series/AFR Series, FIA China F4, and various touring car series. The team also provides year-round beginning and advanced driver training via racing schools, individual driver training, and corporate track days. For more information on BlackArts Racing please visit http://www.BlackArtsRacing.com.

2019 Asia Formula Renault Championship Schedule:

Rnd 1 – March 23-24 - Zhuhai International Circuit, China
Rnd 2 – May 25-26- Zhuhai International Circuit, China
Rnd 3 – August 24-25- Sepang International F1 Circuit, Malaysia
Rnd 4 – September-28-29- Sepang International F1 Circuit, Malaysia
Rnd 5 – December 7-8, 2019 – Zhuhai International Circuit, China