As usual, Stage 5 started with the qualifying race, which was a prelude for the drivers to gain an advantage before the official race. After the morning qualifying session, the drivers who won poles in the previous Stage 3 were William Vinh (NSF 100 category), Phan Minh Phung (Blade 110 category), Nguyen Duc Thanh (MSX 125 category), Nguyen Nhut Linh (Winner 150 category), and Le Phung (UB 130 category).
The qualifying race of Stage 5 wasn’t too special, perhaps because the drivers still couldn’t find their driving feel after a 2-month break or maybe due to strategic calculations as it was the final stage. However, after the qualifying session, the drivers completely transformed and entered the official race, dedicating a fierce, intense, and surprising round to the audience.
Honda NSF 100 category – Vietnam Talent Cup: William Vinh’s incomplete farewell and the champion’s bravery.
Unfortunately, after Stage 5, young racer William Vinh will go to the US to study, hence not participating in the championship anymore. Therefore, as a farewell to the championship, he raced very hard from the qualifying session and earned a deserving pole position.
William Vinh bid farewell to the championship in a not-so-grand but still beautiful way that deserves a smile.
In the official race, William Vinh had a very good start and took advantage to lead immediately. However, in this category, there was still “boss” Nguyen Ton Anh Phu, a racer who only needed more than one lap to rise to first place and gradually distance himself from the competition with his excellent technical foundation. Meanwhile, William Vinh seemed to be racing in a somewhat tense and anxious state, after being overtaken by Anh Phu, he could only weakly chase after him for about half a lap.
Anh Phu continues to lead the championship with 57 points
In addition to the mental aspect of racing, a disadvantage for William Vinh was his physical condition. This Vietnamese-French racer was much “heavier” than his opponents in the same category, therefore, after 3 laps, he faced a fierce pursuit from racer Nguyen Tran Duc Tai. By the 6th lap, Duc Tai had taken the 2nd position from William Vinh, and from then on, the two racers created intense duels, constantly challenging each other. However, by the 8th lap, William Vinh started to lose his breath and let Duc Tai overtake him while Anh Phu at the top didn’t make any mistakes. In the end, Anh Phu won the 3rd stage in a row, Duc Tai finished 2nd, and William Vinh finished 3rd.
With this result, Anh Phu almost secured the championship with 57 points, followed by Tran Le Minh Tu with 44 points, and William Vinh in 3rd place with 41 points. Therefore, the championship hopes for Duc Tai are still there, but even the most optimistic people with this thought have to admit that the championship is hard to escape from the hands of Anh Phu. As for William Vinh, he bid farewell to the championship in a not-so-grand but still beautiful way that deserves a smile.
Blade 110 category: The “dark horse” Trần Nguyễn Phương An
Before Stage 5, Phan Minh Phung was dominating the Blade 110 category with 3 consecutive wins. With the pole position in this Stage 5, many people expected Minh Phung to repeat his championship win. And this expectation was correct in the first 6 rounds of the race when Minh Phung took advantage of his starting position and gradually created a safe distance from the rest of the group, while Minh Tri also raced comfortably in 2nd place.
Phuong An was the one who won the first place in the stage, interrupting Minh Phung’s winning streak
However, after a mistake in the 7th lap, everything changed. Minh Phung couldn’t maintain a safe position against the remaining top racers and continuously faced fierce attacks in every turn. Behind him, racer Phuong An had a very wise racing strategy, avoiding direct confrontation, widening turns, and then quickly accelerating in the straight sections, taking advantage of the moments Minh Tri and Minh Phung were competing closely. He managed to take the 2nd position and challenged Minh Phung directly.
Minh Phung continues to lead the championship with 61 points.
During this time, Phuong An no longer held back, but chose to directly attack Minh Phung, especially in straight sections. By the 9th round, after the first turn after a long straight section, he officially overtook Minh Phung and created an exciting duel between the two racers. Phuong An played very practically at this point, trying to prevent Minh Phung from overtaking rather than trying to accelerate. There were moments when Minh Phung overtook and took the lead, but Phuong An immediately responded. In the end, Phuong An won the stage, ending Minh Phung’s winning streak, with Minh Phung finishing 2nd and Minh Tri finishing 3rd. Speaking of Minh Tri, he is a Wild Cat racer, and this is his first participation in the championship, so his 3rd place finish is a very surprising achievement. Hopefully, in the next season, Minh Tri will become an official racer of VMRC.
The race day just passed, Minh Phung could only blame himself for making mistakes on a day when Phuong An played extremely cold, efficient, making Stage 5 become a race where the 3 Blade 110 racers finished very closely to each other.
In this category, Minh Phung is still leading the championship with 61 points, followed by Pham Thanh Bao who finished 2nd in the stage and climbed to 2nd place in the overall standings with 47 points. Therefore, the championship hopes for Dong Nghi are still there, but it can be seen that only magic can help Phuong An snatch the championship from Minh Phung.
MSX 125 category: Give the cup to Nguyen Duc Thanh
Duc Thanh won the pole position and finished first with complete domination.
Many people jokingly said that in the MSX 125 category this year, everyone is just waiting to see how Nguyen Duc Thanh will win first place. And in Stage 5 just passed, those who expected something surprising were once again “disappointed” because the script was still similar to previous stages: Duc Thanh won the pole position and finished first with complete domination.
Perhaps the surprising thing in this stage is that despite starting in the 2nd position, Nguyen Nhat Truong had a rather poor performance and couldn’t finish in the top 5. This result officially ended the championship hopes of the “god of the championship”. Meanwhile, Pham Thanh Bao had an excellent performance and finished 2nd, rising to 2nd place overall, replacing Nhat Truong in the fragile hope of a “comeback” against Duc Thanh with 47 points, only 14 points behind Duc Thanh.
Winner 150 category: Chaotic race for the crown
Before Stage 5, the Winner 150 category was the most intense category with 5 racers competing for the championship, with the biggest gap being 4 points. After the just-passed stage, the situation doesn’t seem any clearer.
Because of the fierce competition, Stage 5 in the Winner 150 category was full of strategic moves. With a surprising pole position from Nhat Linh, and the 2nd starting position belonging to Ngoc Nhan – the racer leading the standings before the stage with 33 points, it seemed like Ngoc Nhan was more concerned about winning the championship rather than winning the stage 5, while the closest 3 competitors: Dong Nghi and Truong Giang (both with 32 points), and Tien Thanh (30 points) started in 4th, 6th, and 8th positions respectively. Therefore, Dong Nghi would be the biggest threat to Ngoc Nhan in every aspect.
A special point is that Ngoc Nhan is the only racer in the championship who has led the standings for 3 weeks without winning any podium. In contrast, the 2nd-ranked Dong Nghi is the racer with the most podium finishes with 2 first-place finishes, but in stage 2, he had a crash, so he “bitterly” finished in this position. Clearly, Dong Nghi, not Ngoc Nhan, is the racer with the highest chance of winning. Perhaps due to too much calculation, it affected his performance, and Ngoc Nhan gradually fell behind after each round, and even couldn’t make it into the top 9, thereby falling far behind in the race for the championship.
On the other hand, Dang Khoa had a focused and determined performance. Although he started in 5th position, he gradually improved his position round by round, and by the 10th round, he had overtaken Nhat Linh and finished as the winner of the stage. Nhat Linh finished 2nd. Behind them, Hoang Tien surpassed Truong Giang to finish in 3rd position.
With this result, Dang Khoa took the lead with 45 points, Truong Giang finished 4th and had 42 points, while Dong Nghi finished 5th and earned 9 more points, dropping to 3rd place with 41 points. With Ngoc Nhan and Tien Thanh not achieving good results in the just-passed stage, it can be said that the race for the championship in the Winner 150 category is now a three-horse race.
The just-passed Stage 5 also had another highlight, which was the “blocking and overtaking” move between Ngoc Nhan and Dong Nghi. After the race, these two racers had quite a dispute on social media, as Dong Nghi believed that Ngoc Nhan intentionally played dirty. The verdict is still forthcoming, if Ngoc Nhan violated the rules, he will definitely be heavily penalized and have to “give up” the championship in a forgettable manner.
UB 130 category: Phuc Barcelona’s “Pink Night”
Phuc Barcelona started participating in the championship from Stage 2 but is showing signs of becoming a force in VMRC. As soon as they joined, this club “captured” 2 quality racers, Le Hung Huu Tin and Le Phung. Before Stage 5, Le Hung Huu Tin was leading the standings with 37 points.
If in previous stages, Phuc Barcelona didn’t stand out compared to Thiên Lê Racing or Phụ Tùng AE ĐNÁ, in Stage 5, they completely transformed and pushed the two famous clubs and fought for… the 3rd position. The two vehicles used by this club were much more powerful than their opponents and helped the two racers, Le Hung Huu Tin and Le Phung, respectively take the lead in a relaxed manner, without facing any obstacles.
This was truly surprising because it was the first time that fans had witnessed such a “lifeless” UB130 race. The vehicles from the strong clubs such as Thiên Lê Racing or Phụ Tùng AE ĐNÁ were almost “silent” against the strength from the Phuc Barcelona duo.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Anh Tuan, although still performing well as usual, in Stage 5 just passed, due to the excellent performance of Phuc Barcelona, he and the previous first-place finisher Minh Sang could only compete for the 3rd position. And the last position on the podium belonged to Anh Tuan.
With the result of Stage 5 just passed, Huu Tin continued to lead with 53 points, Trong Vinh and Minh Sang remained in the next two positions with 42 and 41 points respectively. With the 3rd position and 10 points obtained, the race for the championship in the UB 130 category officially ended for Nguyen Anh Tuan, a rather unlucky season for him when his vehicle broke down in the 3rd round while he was leading.
Stage 5 of VMRC 2020 has concluded with full of emotions. This seems like a gift that the organizers and Honda Vietnam wanted to send to all viewers on the occasion of the new year 2021 and to welcome the Year of the Buffalo. The VMRC 2020 championship has only one more race left to conclude. Hopefully, everyone will be immersed in an even more spectacular closing ceremony to end a season that took place in a very special year. See you all again in March 2021.
For the latest information on the championship and detailed standings, please visit the Vietnam Motor Racing Fanpagehttps://www.facebook.com/Vietnam-Motor-Racing-813850712144385/
Anh Quan (forum.autodaily.vn)
