Cheng and Tung: China in Their Hands

Ho-Pin Tung and David Cheng return to the FIA WEC at Shanghai with the Pegasus Morgan-Nissan this weekend, and the pair is relishing their first championship start since Le Mans in June.

The famous turquoise of the Pegasus team is as distinctive as it is familiar, and there is a feeling of optimism as the team prepares to be the Chinese crowd’s LMP2 favourite this weekend.

“Certainly it is nice to be back here in front of our home fans and knowing that we have a good chassis and engine combination with the Morgan car and the Nissan engine,” said David Cheng today. “If the weather is like this (wet) we will be quick as well as we are the only LMP2 runner on Michelin tyres and everyone knows how well they perform in the damp and wet.”

Cheng and Tung are joined at Pegasus Racing this weekend by a returning Alex Brundle, and Cheng believes that they have a good chance of a top result this weekend.

“We have a strong and reliable package and we all know the car and circuit well, so we come here with some confidence,” confirmed Cheng.

With endurance racing gaining a foothold in China after hosting a WEC round every year since the formation of the series in 2012, Cheng thinks that the Chinese public are beginning to become immersed in the WEC.

“I think that you can see the Chinese public are taking to endurance racing more and more now,” says Cheng. “Racing in front of a home crowd is really cool. Seeing familiar faces, friends and family really makes it a great event for us. All our partners will have a great weekend here; unfortunately Jackie Chan is away shooting a movie and can’t be here. He is such a big race fan and he will definitely come to a race in the future as he is very supportive of our programme.”

Sam Smith