A DRIVER IN the CTM Macau Touring Car Cup was killed on Friday in the second fatality to mar the Macau Grand Prix in two days, officials said.
Organisers identified the victim as Hong Kong driver Phillip Yau but they could provide no details about how the accident happened.
Yau “succumbed to injuries sustained in a racing accident during the qualifying session this afternoon”, the organisers said in a brief statement.
Yau was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, they said.
Hong Kong television reported that Yau died after after losing control of his vehicle and hitting a wall at more than 200 kilometres (124 miles) an hour.
Footage of the incident showed his car slam into a wall at high speed and burst into flames before rolling to a halt. Yau was still in the car by the time rescue crews arrived and started trying to put out the blaze.
Portuguese motorcycle rider Luis Filipe de Sousa Carreira was killed in an accident during a qualifying session for the Macau Grand Prix on Thursday.
The 35-year-old from Lisbon lost control of his bike and died of his injuries in hospital.
Macau Grand Prix committee coordinator Joao Manuel Costa Antunes defended the event’s safety record after Thursday’s fatality.
“In over 60 years of the Grand Prix, the record can be considered acceptable,” he told Hong Kong daily the South China Morning Post.
“Those involved in motorsport and motorbikes know exactly what I’m saying,” Antunes said.
The Carreira incident was the second death of a motorbike rider at the track in seven years, and the second serious bike accident to occur at the event on Thursday.
Celebrated Italian motorbike rider, 24-year-old Marco Simoncelli, died last year in a crash that resulted in the cancellation of the Malaysian MotoGP at Sepang.
