AKRC: February 2018

SBS 1/10 EP OFFROAD MAJOR LEAGUE – Round 1 race report.

Track venue: Syahmi’s Backyard Speedway, Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia.

Date: 4^th January 2018

By: Adrian Khaw

Mother nature was extremely kind to us as we were blessed with the ‘awesomest’ of awesome weather for this race, especially when it was mostly rainy days for the whole of January in this area. In a way, this allowed us to be a little more flexible on the race schedule as the pressure of trying to complete all qualifiers and finals in the quickest time possible is now off.

The total confirmed race entries were 39, which comprised the following:

Open 2wd Buggy: 11
Open 4wd Buggy: 23
Open 4wd Short Course Trucks: 5

This is probably the highest turnout ever in 1/10 EP off road racing in Malaysia. A very encouraging sign indeed!

This race series will comprise of 4 rounds of races throughout 2018 on the following dates:

Round 1 – 4^th February
Round 2 – 6^th May
Round 3 – 29^th July
Round 4 – 4^th September

Rules we kept simple to encourage participation. 2s battery and no reverse ESC. Racers will be competing for points at every round for the overall League champion in their respective categories.

Apart from that, points will also be awarded for manufacturers with the 2 highest scoring finishes in each category will be combined for every round and at the end of the series, the highest points manufacturer will be awarded with a trophy. This is something new to the hobby which should draw attention from the local distributors in to support drivers of their respective brands.

Qualifying rounds:

2WD open buggy, which recently saw an increase in racers was as competitive as any other racing class. Mark Lim of Singapore took Q1 with 10 laps 5m 7.18s. Kum Yew also of Singapore bagged Q2 & Q3 however his time was not an improvement over Marks, handing him the TQ spot. WK Foong completed the top 3 qualifiers on the grid.

4WD Short Course Trucks, although had only 5 racers saw a fierce battle for the final grid positions. All 5 drivers are very experienced racers who provided spectators with 3 qualifying rounds of pure entertainment. Boy Hazlyne grabbed TQ with 2^nd spot going to Ramesh followed by Shem in 3^rd. The crowd could hardly wait to watch them battle it out for another 3 rounds in the finals!

4WD open buggy was the most competitive category with 23 racers fighting for top spot. Shem, driving Sworkz took Q1 with 12 laps 5m 23.29s. Kent grabbed Q2 with 12 laps 5m 25.51s with his Tekno EB410. However, Q3 will be the round to produce all top 3 qualifiers. Mizan drove his Serpent with a very clean 12 laps 5m 14.77s to snatch TQ with Bashir making the 2^nd place on the grid with his Xray. Hakeem completed 3^rd on the grid driving an Sworkz buggy.

We took an hour off for lunch and to water the track as the dust was starting to get a little unbearable.

Finals:

It is somewhat of a challenge to drive 2WD buggies on this outdoor dirt track. But that did not stop anyone from putting up a good fight for the overall win. Foong drove a good race to secure A1 with Kum Yew in 2^nd and Cynthia Lye in 3^rd. In A2, Mark Lim led from start to finish for his first win. Sim took 2^nd with Foong trailing in 3^rd. It will all boil down to what happens in A3. Both Foong and Mark was leading the pack, swapping the lead every time any one of them makes a mistake. In the end it was Foong who triumphed and grabbed the win, securing the overall first place for 2WD. Mark Lim had to settle for 2^nd and the surprise 3^rd place winner went to Sim.

As expected, the Short Course finals was going to be more entertaining than the qualifiers as Boy Hazlyne was going to be the driver to beat. Veteran racer Shem starting in 3^rd on the grid gave chase and stole A1 from Boy, who had to settle for 3^rd as 2^nd went to Ramesh. Boy, an experienced and former winner of several on road races kept his cool and managed to get his first win in A2. Like in 2wd, A3 will be the deciding race. Again, Boy kept his head straight and managed to avoid everyone who was after him for the win. He won A3 with a slim margin of 0.5 seconds from 2^nd place Ramesh. The overall results was Boy in 1^st place, Shem in 2^nd and Ramesh for 3^rd.

4WD buggy finals was the race everyone was waiting for. In A1, Mizan was in complete control without much drama. He took A1 with a comfortable 1 lap ahead of Bashir. Mizan drove his Serpent with another clean run in A2 to secure his overall win in 4WD buggy. After A3, the overall result was Mizan, Hakeem and Bashir for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place respectively.

All in all, it was an almost perfect race day as not only the weather was perfect but the racers were on time and adhered to instructions like clockwork. We ended the day with trophy presentation and exchanged appreciations all around.

We would like to thank everyone for their support and to our Singaporean friends for driving all the way to join us for this fun filled day.