SBS 1/10 EP OFFROAD
MAJOR LEAGUE – Round 1 race report.
Track venue: Syahmi’s
Backyard Speedway, Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia.
Date: 4th 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 – 4th February
Round 2 – 6th May
Round 3 – 29th July
Round 4 – 4th 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 2nd spot going to Ramesh followed by Shem in
3rd. 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 2nd
place on the grid with his Xray. Hakeem completed 3rd 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 2nd
and Cynthia Lye in 3rd. In A2, Mark Lim led from start to finish for
his first win. Sim took 2nd with Foong trailing in 3rd.
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 2nd and the surprise 3rd
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 3rd on the grid gave chase and
stole A1 from Boy, who had to settle for 3rd as 2nd 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
2nd place Ramesh. The overall results was Boy in 1st place,
Shem in 2nd and Ramesh for 3rd.
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 1st, 2nd and 3rd
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.
Image gallery:
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