Kusiri dominates the first race in Korea

Reigning champion Kantadhee Kusiri completed a winning comeback to TCR Asia as he dominated the first race at Yeongam’s Korea International Circuit in the Viper Niza Racing Cupra, while Andrew Kim and his Brand New Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI finished third overall and won the inaugural race of the new TCR Korea.
Second overall was Luca Engstler, also in a Golf GTI, who scored the 25 points for the win in TCR Asia – as Kusiri is not a registered competitor – and took the lead in the standings with a margin of four points over his fellow Liqui Moly Team Engstler colleague Mitchell Cheah and 12 ahead of Lo Sze Ho in the Maximum Racing Honda Civic.
Kusiri took a poor start from the pole and dropped to fourth behind Engstler, Lo Sze Ho and Cheah. TCR Korea pole sitter Kang Byung Hui spun at T1 in his Indigo Racing Hyundai i30 N and rejoined at the back of the field.
Kusiri began to recover, he overtook Lo Sze Ho and Cheah, chased Engstler and stole the lead from him on lap 4. Afterwards, he pulled away, while both Cheah and Lo Sze Ho dropped down the order as a light rain began to fall.
Indigo Racing’s Cho Hoon Hyun led the TCR Korea race in the early stages with his Hyundai, but he was soon passed by Kim who eventually finished third overall, behind Kusiri and Engstler.
Guest driver Alex Hui in the Brand New Racing Golf GTI won the fight for the fourth position overall beating the Elegant Racing Team Cupra of Kelvin Wong who completed the TCR Asia podium. In TCR Korea, Kim Byoung Hyun claimed the second position in the DreamRacer Racing’s Honda Civic ahead of Cho Hoon Hyun.
Race 2 will start at 2:00pm (7:00am CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.tv.