Shaun Thong

Wei Fung Shaun Thong 唐偉楓 (Born 1 November 1995 in Hong Kong, China) is a racecar driver from Hong Kong. Born in 1995, He is the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Asia Silver Cup champion and the 2020 Super Taikyu Series Champion. Thong is the first and only Chinese driver so far to win the Super Taikyu Series title in history. Thong began karting at the age of 14 and participated in various Asian Karting Championships including the Chinese Karting Championship (CKC), Asian Karting Open Championship (AKOC), Hong Kong Kart Club Championship (HKKC) and CIK KF1.

Shaun Thong 唐偉楓
Shaun Thong in 2022
NationalityHong Kong Hong Kong,China
Born (1995-11-01) 1 November 1995
British Hong Kong
Previous series
2018-21
2021
2019-20
2018-19
2017-18
2017-19
2016
2015-16
2015
2015
2014
2013
2012
Super Taikyu Series
European Le Mans Series
Asian Le Mans Series
Dubai 24 Hours
Asian Le Mans Series
Blancpain GT Asia
GT Asia Series
24 Hours Nürburgring
Blancpain Endurance Series
Audi Sport TT Cup
Euroformula Open Championship
British Formula Renault
Asian Formula Renault
Championship titles
2020
2017
2016
2014
Super Taikyu Series
Blancpain GT Asia
GT Asia Series
EuroFormula Open Winter Series

By the age of 16 he participated in the Renault Clio Cup China in 2011 as a guest driver and finished twice on the podium. Thong was then chosen by Formula Racing Development Limited to race in the 2012 Asian Formula Renault Series and finished third overall after securing one win and two podiums at his inaugural season. After his debut season in single seaters, Thong proceeded to Europe for Formula Renault and Formula 3 before moving to the Sportscar / Prototype racing categories.

In 2015, Thong joined Audi Sport Customer Racing Asia young driver development program and competes in the coveted 24 Hours Nürburgring, Blancpain Endurance Series, Audi Sport TT Cup, as well as the Audi R8 LMS Cup. Thong remains as their selected driver until today with Audi Sport Asia.

In 2019 Thong entered full season of Super GT, becoming the first Hong Kong Driver to enter a full season alongside Marchy Lee. The pair scored a 100% Q2 Super Pole qualify in their debut season as an International team and remained as the only team to achieve it so far.

In 2020 Thong became the first Hong Kong Driver to win the Super Taikyu Series Fuji SuperTec 24 Hours and claimed the overall title after winning two races in the season with Hirix Racing. In 2022 Thong joined Helm Motorsport for the Fuji SuperTec 24 Hours only and won his second Fuji SuperTec 24 Hours, becoming the first and only non Japanese driver to win twice and the first driver to win the pinnacle Japan endurance race with two different manufacturers (Mercedes AMG in 2020) and (Nismo in 2022).

Career

2012 / Karting

Thong raced in the 2012 Asian Formula Renault Challenge with Formula Racing Development Limited, winning one race and with two podium finishes. Thong finished third in his debut year of single seater championship. Apart from Asian Formula Renault Challenge, Thong also participated in the final round of the Maserati Trofeo MC World Series and finished sixth and was awarded for "The Best Asian Driver".Thong also participated in the Malaysia Super Series GT Open Class with two podium finishes.

Apart from car racing Thong also entered the final round of the CIK-FIA KF-1 World Championship held in Macau after finishing 2nd overall in the Hong Kong Kart Club 125cc Class C with two wins and two other podium finishes.

2013

Thong joined Fortec Motorsports squad to race in the Protyre Formula Renault Championship in 2013 and secured one pole position and oen fastest lap in the final round held in Silverstone.[1] Despite finishing 16th in the championship, Thong showed strong potential by constantly qualifying in top 3 in 2013. Thong also made his debut in the third round of Asian Le Mans Series in Zhuhai and won the overall and LMP2 class with OAK Racing in a Morgan / Judd LMP2 prototype.[2] He also made an appearance in the round 7 and 8 Audi R8 LMS Cup as guest driver and finished fifth in round 8 on his debut for the championship.

Thong also finished third in his debut visit to the Macau Grand Prix, racing in the Formula Masters China - Macau Grand Prix Invitational race 2013 with Eurasia Motorsports.

2014

Thong joined Team West-Tec for the 2014 Euroformula Open Championship and won the Winter Series which was held in Paul Ricard, having qualified on pole position and securing a race win with a fastest lap in the Copa Class Dallara F308 / Toyota at all the winter series races.

He later move to the main class featuring the Dallara F312 Chassis with Team West-Tec and finished the season with several top 10 results in his debut year in Formula 3. [3] Thong graduated to the main class for the season driving the Dallara F312 / Toyota with Team West-Tec.

2015

In 2015 Thong was signed by Audi Sport Customer Racing Asia to be their first young driver development program talent and aim to promote young drivers to GT Racing. Thong participated in various championships including the inaugural season of the Audi Sport TT Cup, securing one win and two pole positions in Round 2 held in Norisring and became the only Chinese driver to win or score a pole position in this championship. Moreover, Thong also raced in the Blancpain Endurance Series driving the Audi R8 LMS Ultra for Phoenix Racing (Germany) alongside Marchy Lee and Markus Winkelhock.

Thong is also one of the drivers among the Audi Customer Racing Asia lineup that participated the 2015 24 Hours Nürburgring under a full Asian lineup for the first time, with Cheng Congfu, Marchy Lee and Alex Yoong completing the lineup. The full Asian team finishing 12th overall in the team's debut.

2016

Thong is the GT Asia Vice Champion in 2016. Thong and Phoenix Racing (Germany) entered the championship with the 2016 Audi R8 LMS GT3 and secured two wins and one pole position during the season with only three points shy from the overall title.

Same year Thong also returned to the 24 Hours Nürburgring with the same lineup featuring Cheng Congfu, Marchy Lee and Alex Yoong with the New Audi R8 LMS GT3. However the car retired after hitting technical issues.

From 2016 onwards Thong joined GH Motorsports for the Asian Le Mans Series in the new LMP3 category with the Ligier JS P3. During the season Thong and his team finished three times on the podium out of four races in total.

2017

Thong remained with Phoenix Racing (Germany) to participate in the inaugural season of the Blancpain GT Series Asia and scored two victories in Suzuka, Japan and Shanghai, China respectively. In addition with four other podium finishes in Sepang Malaysia, Buriram Thailand and Fuji Speedway in Japan. Thong and teammate Marchy Lee finished the season as the 2nd Runner Up and at the same time crowned as the Silver Cup Champion.

Thong also drove for Audi Team Teda in the Audi R8 LMS Cup with Phoenix Racing (Germany) as a full season entry despite appeared several times as a guest driver in the past years. During the season Thong finished four times on the podium including once in Sepang Malaysia, twice in Korea and another one in Zhejiang China. The Hong Kong driver came in fifth in the championship.

The same year Thong returned to the 2017 - 2018 Asian Le Mans Series season with Taiwan Beer GH Motorsport from Taiwan in the LMP3 class. Thong and his teammate Hanss Lin 林帛亨 finished third in the LMP3 classification with three podiums out of four races including Zhuhai 4 Hours, Buriram 6 Hours and Sepang 4 Hours with a Ligier JS P3.

Thong made two guest appearances in 2017 with Audi Hong Kong by Phoenix Racing Asia at Round 3,4 Zhuahai International Circuit and Round.5,6 at Bangsaen Street Circuit in Thailand. Thong finished on the podium in both appearances.

2018

The year started with Thong joining fellow Hong Kong Drivers Marchy Lee, Darryl O'Young, Adderly Fong and Charles Kwan for the Dubai 24 Hour in a brand new Audi R8 LMS GT4 with Phoenix Racing (Germany). The Hong Kong outfit won the GT4 Class but was later penalised for pitstop infringement and dropped to second in class behind the other Phoenix Racing sister R8 LMS GT4.

The same year also saw Thong racing full season in Japan in the Super Taikyu Series with his usual crew Phoenix Racing (Germany) alongside Alex Yoong and Alex Au in the #82 Audi R8 LMS GT3. The #82 car led by Thong finished two times on the podium at the 3 Hours of Sugo and the 5 Hours of Autopolis before Thong and Yoong withdrew from the remaining two races of the championship to join Phoenix Racing (Germany) with two Brand New Bentley Continental GT3 at the final two rounds of Blancpain GT Series Asia, partnering South African driver Jordan Pepper.

2019

The Hong Kong driver returned to the Dubai 24 Hour with KC Motorgroup using a New Spec 2018 Nissan GT-R GT3 pairing with Tsugio Matsuda, Katsumasa Chiyo, Josh Burdon and Andrea Gagliardini. The #29 Nissan crew was running strong at sixth before suffering a mechanical failure that forced them to retired after 20 hours.

Thong made his debut in Japan's premier championship 2019 with Hong Kong outfit X Works Racing with a 2018 Nissan GT-R GT3. The team was equipped with Yokohama tires and finished four times in the points in their debut year at Round.2 Fuji Speedway, Round.4 Buriram Thailand, Round.7 Sugo and Round.8 Twin Ring Motegi. In 2019 X Works and their drivers became the first International entry in GT300 class to successfully score points in Super GT's history. Thong had two teammates over the season with Marchy Lee at the beginning of the season and Shinya Michimi for the second half of the season.

At the same year Thong also made two appearances in the Super Taikyu Series for the Round.3 Fuji 24 Hours and Round.5 5 Hours of Motegi alongside his current Super GT crew X Works Racing using the Audi R8 LMS GT3 in ST-X Class. The crew retired from the Fuji 24 Hours due to mechanical issues which was too severe for repair on spot. Thong rejoined at Round.5 in Twin Ring Motegi and qualified third for the 5 Hours race, in the end the #83 Audi crew won the 5 Hours of Motegi with Thong being the lead driver following by fellow Hong Kong drivers Smart Tse Ka Hing and Philip Tang. This victory marked the team's victory in the championship and also the first foreign team to win in Super Taikyu.

Thong made his Asian Le Mans Series return but this time with brand new team K2 Uchino in the premier LMP2 class running the Oreca 07/Gibson. K2 Uchino Racing is closely related to the 2018 Super GT GT300 champion team K2 Leon Racing. Thong and his teammate Haruki Kurosawa was the only LMP2 team that ran with two drivers, meaning Thong being the Silver classification driver will do 2/3 of the race distance. K2 Uchino Racing and Thong secured a podium finish at the season finale at the 4 Hours of Buriram, Thailand in just the team's third ever race in LMP2.

2020

Thong returned to Super GT and Super Taikyu Series with X Works Racing and new team Hirix Good Day Racing respectively. X Works Racing swapped from Nissan GT-R GT3 to the Audi R8 LMS EVO GT3 and remains on Yokohama Tires for their second season. However the season was considered the tougher one due to travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic which cost the Hong Kong outfit to ran the season without their dedicated engineer and mechanics. Thong had several teammates throughout the season including 2005 GT300 Champion Kota Sasaki, Takuro Shinohara and Takeshi Kimura due to COVID-19 travel restrictions which led to Alex Au, Thong's planned teammate from Hong Kong being unable to enter Japan due to the closure of the Japanese border after the pandemic.

Thong is the 2020 Super Taikyu Series overall and ST-X (FIA GT3) champion. Thong returned to the championship with new formed Japanese team Hirix Good Day Racing with a 2020 Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO with Daisuke Yamawaki and 2019 2019 GT300 champion Shinichi Takagi. Due to COVID the championship had rescheduled the calendar with the Fuji 24 Hours being the season Opener. The Hirix Racing crew won their debut race in the Fuji 24 Hours race in addition with Yuki Nemoto joining for the 24 Hours only and replacing Shinichi Takagi later in the season.

The #888 Hirix Racing AMG GT3 EVO came home as the 2020 Fuji Super Tec 24 Hours winner after completing 528 laps in total. Throughout the race the Hirix Racing outfit had a huge fire during on of their routine pitstop, however the car only suffered minor external damage and continued from then. The race was red flagged after torrential rain hit the circuit at night with seven hours into the race. The race continued after a three hours suspension once standing water was cleared and the track deemed safe to race again by the track marshals and race officials.

Round.2 Sugo saw the Hirix Racing crew and Thong finished second overall after starting the 3 Hours from Pole Position, the race was under full green condition even it was suffered from heavy rain throughout the whole race. After this race the #888 crew extended the championship lead at 60 points.

The following round at Okayama International Circuit saw the crew suffered from their only DNF of the season when Shinichi Takagi crashed on lap 9 of the 3 Hours of Okayama which left him a fractured back and wrist, resulting in Takagi withdrawing from the remaining races in both Super Taikyu Series and Super GT the same year. He later recovered and returns to the 2021 Super GT season. Yuki Nemoto replaced Takagi from Okayama onwards in the #888 Hirix Racing AMG GT3 Evo from then onwards.

Round.4 saw the Thong and the Hirix Racing outfit came home with their second win of the season, it also marked Thong's back to back win for the 5 Hours of Motegi after his victory with X Works Racing in 2019. Thong started the race after qualifying second from the grid, he was spun around by his competitor #9 Mp Racing on lap 2 but Thong later recovered and led the race from then onwards. Thong was also responsible for taking the checkered flag and concluded the team and his second win of the season. The second victory also further extended their championship lead.

Autopolis Circuit in Kyushu of Japan held the Round.5 and the #888 crew could possibly be crowned as champion if they won this race. Thong and his Hirix Racing team took the checkered flag fourth after suffering from a driver through penalty due to start infringement by his teammate. However the championship lead was still under healthy margin. The final round at Suzuka was cancelled due to the announcement of the Japan state of Emergency due to the increasing COVID-19 cases around the country, hence only the first five rounds would be counted and from then onwards Thong and the #888 Hirix Good Day Racing crew as announced as the 2020 Super Taikyu Series Champion after securing two wins, another podium finish and a pole position.

Racing record

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GT Asia Series results

Year Team Class Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rank Points
2016 Phoenix Racing Asia GT3 Audi R8 LMS GT3 KOR
5
KOR
4
CHA
1
CHA
11
OKA
5
OKA
1
FUJ
11
FUJ
9
SHA
4
SHA
5
SHA
3
SHA
2
2nd 126

Complete GT World Challenge Asia results

Year Team Class Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rank Points
2017 Phoenix Racing Asia GT3 Audi R8 LMS GT3 SEP
5
SEP
3
CHA
2
CHA
2
SUZ
1
SUZ
14
FUJ
17
FUJ
3
SHA
1
SHA
5
ZHE
4
ZHE
6
3rd 158
2018 Phoenix Racing Asia GT3 Audi R8 LMS GT3

Bentley GT32

SEP SEP CHA CHA SUZ
9
SUZ
8
FUJ
7
FUJ
10
SHA
Ret2
SHA
112
NIN
DNS2
NIN
52
25th 13
2022 Audi Sport Asia X Works GT3 Audi R8 LMS EVO2 GT3 SEP
Ret
SEP
8
SUZ
DNS
SUZ
DNS
FUJ
7
FUJ
8
SUG
5
SUG
19
OKA OKA MAN
C
MAN
C
18th 24

Complete Super Taikyu Series results

Year Team Class Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Rank Points
2018 Phoenix Racing Asia GT3 / ST-X Audi R8 LMS GT3 SUZ
4
SUG
2
FUJ
Ret
AUT
3
MOT OKA N/A 9th 19
2019 X Works GT3 / ST-X Audi R8 LMS GT3 SUZ SUG FUJ
Ret
AUT MOT
1
OKA N/A 6th 31
2020 Hirix Racing GT3 / ST-X Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO FUJ
1
SUG
2
OKA
Ret
MOT
1
AUT
4
SUZ
C
N/A 1st 105
2021 AS Sport GT4 / ST-Z Audi R8 LMS GT4 MOT
9
SUG
Ret
FUJ
7
AUT SUZ
10
OKA
5
N/A 11th 19.5
2022 HELM Motorsport

Grid Motorsport2

GT3 / ST-X Nismo GT-R GT3

Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO 2

SUZ FUJ
1
SUG AUT MOT
12
OKA
42
SUZ
42
2nd 100
2023 HELM Motorsport GT3 / ST-X Nismo GT-R GT3 SUZ FUJ
4
SUG AUT MOT OKA FUJ

Complete Super GT Series results

Year Team Car Class Tires 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Rank Points
2019 X Works Nismo GT-R GT3 GT300 Yokohama OKA
Ret
FUJ
7
SUZ
28
CHA
6
FUJ
16
AUT
19
SUG
6
MOT
8
20th 17
2020 X Works Audi R8 LMS EVO GT300 Yokohama FUJ
18
FUJ
Ret
SUZ
24
MOT
27
FUJ
29
SUZ
22
MOT
20
FUJ
16
N/A 0

Complete TCR Asia Series results

Year Team Class Chassis 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rank Points
2017 Audi Hong Kong TCR Audi RS3 LMS SEQ SEP SEP ZHU ZHU ZHU
Ret 5
ZHU
3
BNG
63
BNG
6
SHA SHA ZHE ZHE 10th 40

Complete TCR Taiwan Series results

Year Team Class Chassis 1 2 3 4 Rank Points
2023 GH-Team AAI TCR Honda Civic FK7 TCR LIH
1
LIH LIH
1
LIH 2nd 32

Complete Asian Le Mans Series results

Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 Rank Pts
2013 OAK Racing Morgan LMP2 LMP2 INJ FUJ ZHU
1
SEP 7th 26
2016-17 G-Print by Triple 1 Racing Ligier JS P3 LMP3 ZHU FUJ
Ret
CHA
3
SEP
2
7th 33
2017-18 Taiwan Beer GH Motorsport Ligier JS P3 LMP3 ZHU
2
FUJ
Ret
CHA SEP
2
7th 36
2019-20 K2 Uchino Racing Oreca 07 LMP2 SHA
Ret
BEN SEP
4
CHA
3
6th 27
2022 Konrad Motorsport Ginetta G61-LT-P3 LMP3 DUB
8
DUB
Ret
YAS
7
YAS
Ret
11th 10

Complete European Le Mans Series results

Year Team Class Chassis 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rank Points
2021 JMW Motorsport LMGTE Ferrai 488 GTE EVO CAT RBR LEC MNZ SPA ALG
6
21st 8

Complete Michelin Le Mans Cup results

Year Team Class Chassis 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rank Points
2022 CD Soprt LMP3 Ligier JS P320 LEC
7
IMO LMS LMS SPA ALG 25th 6

Complete Protyre Formula Renault Championship results

Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Rank Points
2013 Fortec Motorsport Tatuus FR2000 DON
Ret
DON
DNS
SNE
13
SNE
9
SNE
10
THR
Ret
THR
Ret
THR
Ret
CRO
5
CRO
14
CRO
Ret
ROC
11
ROC
5
ROC
Ret
SIL
14
SIL
5
16th 117

Complete Euroformula Open Championship results

Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Rank Points
2014 Team West-Tec Dallara F312 Nür
10
Nür
10
ALG
9
ALG
11
JER
13
JER
8
HUN
8
HUN
Ret
SIL
8
SIL
Ret
SPA
Ret
SPA
12
MNZ
17
MNZ
Ret
CAT
15
CAT
17
18th 16

References

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