Andre Newate

Andre Newate (born 27th May 1970 in Hong Kong) is somehow a racing driver. He is best known for his career in the World Touring Car Masters but he has also competed in touring car series and stock car series around the world, in a career remarkable for its combination of longevity and a complete lack of any noteworthy results.

1991-????: WTCM Career

1991

Near the end of 1991, Newate heard that the WTCM circus was coming to Macau for its season finale. Despite having little interest in motorsports prior, he decided on the spot that this was the path for him and promptly bought himself a Ford Sierra and founded Team Racing. Before the race, he garnered some attention by boldly announcing to the South China Morning Post his intention to win in his first ever car race, and that championship contenders Silvio Bachot and Johnny Cecotto were scrubs in comparison to him. Though he qualified surprisingly-high for the pre-qualifying race, he failed to qualify, woefully off the pace of the leaders, but his surprisingly-competent defensive driving meant everyone behind him had their pre-qualifying race ruined too.

1992

Newate returned to WTCM for a full season campaign in 1992, again with Team Racing; however, the Sierra had been replaced with an Opel Vectra bought from Larsen Racing System. After an uneventful performance in pre-qualifying for the season-opener, Newate made headlines by threatening Toyota with blacklisting in Hong Kong if they did not immediately sell him a works-spec 1992 Toyota Carina II, the car which had won every single race held over the weekend. When Union Saver Developments predictably refused to give him a car, his father, by this point a councillor on the nascent LegCo, tacked on an amendment to the Imports/Exports Bill being debated there, banning the import of all Toyotas into Hong Kong, very clearly both to benefit his son. This sparked fury across the territory that would ultimately lead to the so-called Toyota Protests: thousands of Hong Kong taxi drivers, many in Toyota Crowns, paraded down Queensway, causing total disrpution to Admiralty in an ultimately-successful attempt to kill the bill.

Complete WTCM Results

Year	Team	Car	Class																									WDC	Pts	Class	Pts
1991	Team Racing	Ford Sierra Sapphire	I	Template:AUS				Template:USA				Template:GBR	Template:FRA					Template:GBR				Template:BEL						N/A	0	58th	0
				F	S	F	S	F	S	F	S	E	F	F	S	F	S	F	S	F	S	E	F	S	F
				AUS	AUS	JPN	JPN	USA	USA	AFR	AFR	RAC	PAU	CZE	CZE	ITA	ITA	GBR	GBR	SWE	SWE	SPA	GER	GER	MAC DNQ
1992	Team Racing	Opel Vectra	I	Template:AUS				Template:USA				Template:GBR	Template:FRA						Template:GBR				Template:BEL					N/A*	0*	N/A*	0*
				F	S	F	S	F	S	F	S	E	F	S	F	S	F	S	F	S	F	S	E	F	S	F	S
				AUS DNQ	AUS DNQ	JPN DNQ	JPN DNQ	USA DNQ	USA DNQ	AFR DNQ	AFR DNQ	RAC DNQ	PAU DNQ	PAU DNQ	CZE DNQ	CZE DNQ	ITA	ITA	GBR	GBR	SWE	SWE	BEL	GER	GER	MAC	MAC