2025 CTCC Ningbo: TTSPORT's 1.5T Civic Takes Double Podium in TCS Class
At CTCC Ningbo, the TTSPORT & YiTron Racing Team stepped up from a TC1 class sweep in Shanghai into the hyper-competitive TCS class — and came home with a double podium, second and third place, running a 1.5T Honda Civic FK7 against a grid full of 2.0T cars.
From Shanghai Sweep to Ningbo Underdog
Two days earlier in Shanghai, the team's 1.5T FK7 had been untouchable in TC1, taking four wins in two days. The chassis was dialed, and the TTSPORT brake setup let the drivers brake meters later than the field without the pedal going long. Moving up to TCS at Ningbo was a different math problem entirely.
There, the FK7 lined up as the only 1.5T car against a field of 2.0T machines — down on horsepower and straight-line speed before the green flag even dropped.
Drivers Sun Zheng and Wang Wenbin knew going in that they couldn't out-drag the 2.0T cars on the long straights. The plan was simple on paper and hard in practice: give up nothing in a straight line, then take it all back at the end of every braking zone.
1.5T vs 2.0T: Where the Race Was Actually Won
This wasn't a horsepower fight the FK7 could win, so the team didn't try to fight it that way. Every gap made up on track had to come from carrying more speed into a corner and getting back on the gas sooner — which means braking later, harder, and more consistently than cars with a bigger engine and more margin for error. It turned Ningbo into a real-world torture test for the FK7's friction materials and thermal management, lap after lap.
Why Ningbo Punishes Brakes — and How TTSPORT Held Up
Ningbo International Circuit has a reputation as a brake killer. High-speed sections dump straight into technical corners, forcing repeated hard stops with almost no time for pads and rotors to cool between them. In TCS, the faster overall pace means more kinetic energy converted to heat on every application — and heat is the enemy of consistent braking. As pad and rotor temperatures climb, the coefficient of friction drops off, pedal travel gets longer, and bite starts to fade right when a driver needs it most.
The calipers on the race car use the same forged monoblock architecture and metallurgy as TTSPORT's consumer Pro-Series kits, paired with high-carbon 2-piece rotors built to shed heat fast. Racing at this level is the stress test — it's how seal and piston designs get proven before they ever go into a kit sold for the street. On top of the hardware, the drivers leaned on threshold braking, working right at the limit of tire grip for the shortest time possible to keep braking events short and maximize cooling airflow between corners.
Sole 1.5T FK7 (#109) racing against a full field of 2.0T cars.
Double podium finish for the #109 car in the TCS class at Ningbo.
The same FK7's result in the prior TC1 round at Shanghai.
Double Podium, Season Continues
From a clean sweep in Shanghai's TC1 class to a giant-killer double podium in TCS at Ningbo, the pattern is hard to argue with. Horsepower didn't decide this race — a lighter, nimbler car with brakes that didn't fade did. That's the whole case for building a big brake kit around consistency instead of just outright bite: it's what lets a smaller engine punch above its class.
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