Action on the Track

Photos are taken by Mr Dave Smith on his dusty, Oooops, I meant to say "trusty" Canon 20D - Thanks Dave. I lost my camera and Dave was so kind to share with me his pictures.

Select the picture with your mouse to see the animated version of it. Blogger does not allow me to attach the animated version here directly, or maybe I should say I don't know how to.

Photos are taken by Mr Dave Smith on his dusty, Oooops, I meant to say "trusty" Canon 20D - Thanks Dave. I lost my camera and Dave was so kind to share with me his pictures.

The Singapore Team at the Opening Ceremony

This was taken at ground zero during the opening ceremony.

Mark Pavidis won the Championship

Well by now, the whole world would've know that Mark Pavidis is the World Champion with a Kyosho MP777 sp2 and an OS Works engine. I've an audio record of Mark's speech at the track (2nd part of it, I miss is opening) and I also have the full 1 hour audio recording of the main finals from the pit lane. I'll arrange to up load the smaller audio files to ODEO but for the 1 hour one I'll need to locate a larger free file store for it.

My Predictions

Well, Mr Carlos is giving his prediction to Mike Myers for his website, so even if I did hear it, it won't be right to put it up since he didn't tell it to me. So, just for fun, I'll give you my prediction on who are the ones who could be in the Main Finals. The world champ would be anyone's guess.

In no particular order, here are the names and why I think they stand a chance in the 10 ten list:
Mark pavidis; he have a 155 point and a 153 point, his two other runs were a decent 147 and 146 points.
Scott Hughes too stand a good chance, he had 2 151 points.
On the same notion, I would put down
Chad Bradley
Jeremy Kortz
Yannick Aigon

The above would have a 90% chance of getting a seat in the main finals.

The remaining 5 will have to slug it out tomorrow with the rest on the remaining 2 runs. If you are a member of Mike Myers web site; Starting Grid, you can view Mr. Carlos' prediction.

More photos are up at Flickr.

Oh, by the way, the entire sort list was captured on camera at Flickr, but beware that there is some sorting mistakes which you will have to look through, don't take them as final please.

Just some results

The weather is a little cloudy, but noentheless we had fine weather. Racing is keen and we see more results. Raul Peris is back today, he was out with a bad stomach and he sleep out yesterdays run 1 & 2.

On the Singapore front, we have the following:

Postion 57 is Ah M with 348 points he had 11 laps on the first 3 runs and only manage a 10 lap on run 4.

Position 71 is Chester Chua with 315 poins, he had 2 11 laps and 2 10 laps.
Position 73 is Glenn Phuah with 307 points, he had 2 11 laps and 2 10 laps.
Position 87 is Chris Sze with 275 points, he had a 11 laps and 3 10 laps.
Position 92 is Sam Cheng with 263 points, he had 2 11 laps a 10 and a 9 laps.
Position 94 is Kenny Chua with 247 points, he had 3 11 laps and a DNS.
Position 97 is Wenyi with 244 points, he had a 11 10 9 & 8 lap runs.
Position 119 is Desmond Tan with 195 points, he had 3 10 laps and a 9.
Position 128 is Joe Hwee with 173 points, he did 3 10 laps and a 6.

Just for reference;

Position 1 is Mark Pavidis with 601 points, he had 3 12 laps and a 11.
Position 2 is Scott Hughes with 600 points, he had 2 12 laps and 2 11 laps.
Position 3 is Chad Bradley with 591 points, he had 2 12 laps and 2 11 laps.

Well we still have 2 more runs for our boys to catch up before the Christmas Tree finals. But in the press room now is Mr Carlos, President of EFRA, analysing the results with Mike Myers for his web site. In his analysis, only the top 5 positions are safe for the semi finals, the rest will still have to work hard to secure their direct semi final entry. This is purely based on his experience in point counting and predicting.

Full Track view from the Driver Stand

30th August: Day 3

Now this is serious business today. the official heats starts on the dot. From the Official Conrol Practice runs, the best run was ranked by points. I checked with Mr Sander on how the re-seed was done and this is what he said; The top 50 were placed into Heats 1 to 5 with swapping of drivers from the 2nd 50 drivers only if there were any frequency crashes. Then the 2nd 50 drivers were seeded into Heats 6 to 10 in the same manner and the rest is history.

So, we have one Heat with 3 Singapore drivers, can't remember their names, getting old liao and I forgot to bring down my list to the press room. At the end of the 2 Heat runs, Glenn Phuah did the best, in terms of results, but we still have 2 more days of Heats of 4 runs to go, so anything can happen.

Old man Sam didn't wake up on the right side of his bed, or was it someone else bed, Hmmm.... In run 1 the RB chief engineer was tuning up his engine and gave him a direct order to take the triple jump in one go. he figetted but nonetheless tried it and it would not be an overstatement to say that he clumsyly cleared it as demanded. In run 2, not too sure what he did, but he confirmed that his engine wasn't running at peak performance. But not to despair, our Old man Sam is still full of fighting spirit, we shall watch for tomorrow.

Today, if I remember right, the fastest lap time I saw was a 50.x, no 49s today. No one clear the super woops in 3 by 2, most were doing a 2 by 2 by 1. All the 10 minute 12 lapper drivers were clearing the tripple in 1 jump, the quad woops corner were cleared in a 1 by 1 by 2 fashion.

Oh, almost forgot, Chris Sze's leg operation scar opened up last night. Danny Teh's version of Eddie's discovery was so hilarious. Danny says the scar was near Chris grion area and Eddie came into the room while he was squatting down to help Chris put a plaster over the scar... well I'll let you guess what Eddie think he saw.

Eddie got hold of Andri, who help ferried Chris off to the nearest hospital, but there is no surgeon on duty and he had to go back this morning at 9am for help. Chris got back in time for his Heat and when I check with him, he says he is okay.

Opening Ceremony

It was short sweet and sharp. Eddie Lee was the emcee and everything went well. The VVIP was the Indonesian Minister of Youth and Sport who welcomed everyone and was very please that Indonesian was able to hold such an International event. The VIP was AMRI President, iFMAR President & FEMCA President, they all gave a nice short speech.

To mark the opening, the VVIP and VIPs release 3 bunches of very colourful balloons. Thereafter the VIPs were invited to choose cars for Concours. A total of 6 cars were shortlisted and the winner will be announced at the banquet. The VIPs had originally wanted to invide Mr. John Agus wife to be the final judge, however, that was quickly rendered inapropriate when they found out that one of the selected cars were non other than Mr. John Agus's car.

All pictures are at Flickr check them out yourselves.

29th August: Day 2

Okay, by now this shouldn't be news anymore, but either Blogger was down last night or my connection from here was cranky. I could not access this blog or dashboard at all. So here goes my personal thoughts of Day 2;

The Singapore boys did good yesterday, all trying to dial in their cars. The all have about 15 minutes of practice time twice. Both sessions, the last five minutes were AMB timed to re-seed everyone into the Heats. Our best performer was our very own Wenyi on his RB C6 powered X1CR Pro. Both Eddie and myself agreed that Wenyi has matured in his driving and he is now very consistent, he just needs more track time like everyone else.

Chatted with Joe a little, he was trying to get his Lightning Pro to pass scrutineering, it seems that the rear whell base is a little too wide once the suspension is pressed down and released. With some advice from Andri, he was testing out some changes. I didn't check with him thereafter, but I guess he should have pass.

Syaaf, Vincent & Chopin

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

Syaaf and Vincent visiting Chopin to check out the bow tie tires he is using. More imprtantly we all went in to cool down. SKTan confirmed that the aircon paddock costs USD$150 per day. We mentally work out the sum, it won't be possible in Singapore, it will probably costs atleast double.

Okay guys, I'm getting tired. I won't write anymore, but you can view all my pictures at the "Photo Archive" link on the right side menu of the Home Page: http://sgmprcmc.blogspot.com

Ian Haley's Jammin Promoters

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

Here's Ian in his best, showing me the new wing and more imporant of all the 2 newly interviewed Jammin promoters that would be at the track from Tuesday.

Look at the grin on this guy's face.

Kenji Osaka's MBX

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

Well guys, if you are thinking of seeing his handsom face, or his pretty interpreter, sorry, I didn't had a chance to meet them yet, but this is his trusty Mugen MBX5 in its full glory, before it hit the track.

Hmmm.... wonder where were his purple colored rims.

During his practice run, I notice that he ran his second tank with a different wing. His mechanics changed his wing, I can't see any visible difference from my position and that wing had no stickers and it was white, so it was not easy trying to see the details.

The Waiting List

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

This is my first encounter. We actually had a group of drivers who turned up without a seat. Imagine flying all the way to the world championships with car, engine, radio, spares and all, just for that hope.

Well? Sanders says that there is no rules on this, but they were allowed to go for 15 minutes of unofficial practice and Tuesday lunch time they will be able to race one another to rank themselves for the possible 5 to 6 noshow seats. Awesome, isn;t it?

Glenn @ Paddock

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

You can feel the satisfaction from his look, can you? He just finish his unofficial control practice run with his RB powered XB8TQ.

Coke is faster

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

This is Rody Roem and Sam Cheng having a secret RB Engine chat at the paddock. I overheard Rody telling Glenn to sent in his RB to the RB tent to have the con rod renewed. Glenn confirmed that he had ran through 9l of fuel through that RB, whcih Rody affirm that 2 gallons is the max for a con change.

Eeeeks, hmm, why am I marketing RB for free, okay, I'll stop talking about RB products from now.

Paddock Action

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

This is Singapore's Kenny Chua and our friendly Malaysian neighbour Syaaf. This is not a spelling error, Syaaf told me so.

Driver Stand Action

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

Here you see our good friend Andri of Indonesia doing his practice run. I had the opportunity to see Andri's track, it was very nice and Andri says that he is planning to bid for the 2007 FEMCA Buggy Championships to be held at his track. So, watch out for it.

Some Pit Action

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

There were 9 drivers from Singapore and they all help each other out at the pits, regardless of race, language or religion, Ooops.. I mean car, engine or radio.

Sam Cheng & RB Engines

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

If you need a reason to invest in a RB engine in Singapore, this has to be it. Sam Cheng is going to at the track to make sure it works for you a 101%.

You can see Sam here in the pit, temp gun in hand, customer car in the other hand.

Chad Bradley's X1CR

This is the sole Jammin entry from USA, driven by Chad.

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

Ian Haley showed me a new wing he made

This is a new Wing which Ian designed himself. The jury allowed it because the rules were insufficient to diallow it and there is plenty of stock for whoever wants to use it. It clears the wing width requirement, but the wing cord is much more than the allowable width. But I guess we will have to watch the results to know if this really works.

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

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Originally uploaded by phlim.

28th August 2006: Day 1 at the track

The weather was great, the sun was up all the time and we have a light breeze from the South. Temperature was around 71 according to weather.com, but it sure felt a lot warmer.

There were 150 drivers and Sander had 180 frequency and PT number changes, it was quite a nightmare. At the end of the day, there were actually about 5 seats available. A list was up for about 15 drivers to fill up and they were given 15 minutes of track time after Heat 15. Tomorrow they will slug it out ahead of the rest during lunch time with a race. They will then be ranked and the last available seats will be given out.

The track didn't change much, just improvements, very good improvements in general. Kudos to the organizers for all their hard work.

Unofficially, the fastest lap time was by Vray with a 49.207s followed by Daniel Reckward with 49.343s and third fastest was Joseph Quagraine (hope I spell it right) at 49.576s. It is not definitive because most of the drivers were still dialing in their cars.

Met up with the Chief Referee, Dallas, the man himself. He impressed upon the organizers that the Marshals safety is NUMBER ONE over everything else, next is the cars on the track and then finally is the one that made a mistake. Should any driver scream their heads off, Dallas says he will deal with them personally.

Hmmm.. quite a day. Our Singapore boys did okay, Sam was running in his brand new RB C6, Kenny had a battery problem and I think Ah-M had some minor issues. On the whole it was a good day.

Tomorrow would be the Official Practice for seeding, it should be a lot more exciting. That's all for now.