The China Circuit Championship (CCC) finally kicked off with its season opener held late July, due to a change-over of the race organisers.
　
Last year, it was mandatory for competitors of the main 1600cc class to change their tires at least once during the race, but that obligation was removed for this year's races. Therefore, all competitors of both categories, 1600cc and 2000cc class, are to run the race distance of 80km with one set of tires. This means that a good level of grip and a longer life are demanded for the tires.
　
For this season, YOKOHAMA continues to support two Nissan TIIDAs of the Dongfeng Nissan Ghiasports Team which is the reigning champion team of the 1600cc class and three Volkswagen POLOs of Shanghai VW 333 Racing in the same class. During the unusually long off season, the latter team sent their cars to a well-known Japanese tuner, Carrosse, to totally modify the cars (except for the tuning on engines). As a result, they are now the full-fledged racing cars despite their modest looks.
　
In the official practice session on Saturday, Wang Rui in a POLO was the quickest and was followed by three other YOKOHAMA equipped cars, namely two TIIDAs and a POLO driven by Han Han, with a considerable advantage over other competitors in dry conditions. Naturally, the qualifying session appeared to be a contention between those four cars.
　
However, the surface conditions in the qualifying session was wet. Just before the qualifying session for the 2000cc class started, the circuit was suddenly hit by a thunderstorm and it was so heavy that course marshals had to briefly retreat to avoid lightning strikes. Although the rain had already stopped when the qualifying session for the 1600cc class started, the surface was still very wet. The track was gradually drying up, but it was still possible for the rain to start again, so all the competitors went out with wet tires in the early stage of the session.
　
While the pacesetter of the practice session, Wang Rui had a trouble with his engine and struggled to mark a competitive time, two Nissan TIIDAs consistently clocked quicker times and occupied the first and second slots on the time sheet for a while. But Han Han in a POLO who was third at that point pitted in to adjust the air pressure of his tires and went back on the track. Soon after that, under difficult conditions, he marked the fastest time of the session. In response to Han Han's jump up, reigning champion Guo Haisheng went for a gamble and put slick tires on his TIIDA to go out for his final attack, but he couldn't improve his time. As a result, Han Han took the pole position and Guo Haisheng and Lin Lifeng followed in their TIIDAs. Wang Rui finished the session in fourth and completed YOKOHAMA's domination of the first two rows of the grid.
　
After a heavy rain Sunday morning, the rainfall became lighter and the warm-up session was run on the wet surface. Maintaining momentum after taking pole position on Saturday, Han Han was in good form and the fastest in the session. The popular young author's performance attracted much attention of the press and fans, and many people expected a good result for him.
　
Although it was still cloudy, the surface was completely dry when the starting procedure of the race began and the atmospheric temperature went up to 35℃ just like a hot summer day. As soon as Han Han's car sat on the pole position, he was surrounded by many fans and the press and loudly cheered by fans in the stands.
　
At the start of the race, Wang Rui rocketed from the fourth grid and took the lead on the opening lap. On the other hand, the pole sitter Han Han and two TIIDAs all made bad starts and fell back. It took twelve laps for these three drivers to come back to their original position after battling against other cars. YOKOHAMA users made up the top four in the middle stage of the race. From then on, the race was a contest between the four YOKOHAMA equipped cars.
　
Han Han in third caught up to Guo Haisheng in TIIDA vying for the second position. The battle continued until the final corner of the penultimate lap, but Guo Haisheng's TIIDA was suddenly hit by suspension trouble and crashed into the wall on the inside of the corner. Consequently, Wang Rui led the race comfortably and was followed by Han Han in a POLO and Lin Lifeng in a TIIDA. It meant that the podium of the 2007 season opener was monopolised again by YOKOHAMA users.
　
The CCC calendar is a little bit hasty now and races are to be held every two or three weeks. The venue of round two will be Beijing Golden Port International Circuit. It is almost certain that the championship is going to be a competition between YOKOHAMA users who are privileged to enjoy the high performance of those tires.