Sobue claims a second TITC title

Akio Sobue has claimed a second TITC title, this time round the Infinity driver doing so in much more dominant fashion to his spectacular win over Alexander Hagberg in 2018.  While concerns of the Coronavirus depleted the international entry for the 18th running of Asia’s most famous annual touring car event, the Infinity driver still faced stiff competition, most of which came from within his own team.  With the race marking the international race debut of the Japanese company’s IF14-II, Jilles Groskamp would keep Sobue honest in the finals.  A crash in A1 caused by his pinion coming undone, gave Groskamp the win in A1 meaning it would all go down to A3 after Sobue got the job done in A2.  Having been the closest to matching Sobue’s pace at the Infinity Addict Circuit throughout qualifying, Groskamp wasn’t going to let the opportunity to go for the overall win pass in A3 and putting in a good fight kept the pressure on the Top Qualifier for the entire 5-minutes, the first time anyone had been able to do so all weekend.  Still Sobue resisted the challenge to take back the title that he had lost last year to the absent Hagberg.  Having finished runner-up last year, Naoto Matsukura again was on the podium this time in 3rd after winning a battle with Viktor Wilck for that position.  Finishing off what was a tough TITC weekend for the Yokomo team, local hero Meen Vejrak would get a P3 in the third A-Main to secure 5th place as the best placed non-Infinity driver.

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