Round 5 of the Just Hobby Challenge took place on August 2, 2009 at the Just Hobby race circuit. It was a bright, sunny Sunday morning⦠a perfect day for racing!
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Qualifying
The first round of qualifying started at 9:45AM, and morning traction was very good. XRAY driver Tom Goh held the provisional pole position after the first round of qualifying with team mate Erwin Luhur in 4th place and Jesse Wu in 5th place. By the second round of qualifying, Nelson Lee took over the pole position with a perfect run. In the final round of qualifying, nobody improved their times due to poor traction conditions.
Qualifying order :
1. Nelson Lee 2. Tom Goh XRAY NT1
3. Hengster 4. Erwin Luhur XRAY NT1
5. Terrence Chung 6. Jesse Wu XRAY NT1
7. Othman
8. Philip Lee
9. Rosli
10. Don Ng
Final
In the 45min A-main final , Nelson and Tom had a great start and quickly put a gap between themselves and the chasing pack. Erwin and Jesse battled for 3rd and 4th places. By the first refuel stop, Nelson and Tom were already 1 lap ahead of the chasing pack except for Erwin and Jesse who were still on the same lap with the leaders. Nelson had a flame-out right after pitting, with Tom, Jesse, and Erwin (all XRAY) leading the race.
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Everything was going smoothly for Tom and he had opened up almost a lap gap between he and Jesse. Meanwhile, Jesse and Erwin were battling hard for 2nd and 3rd places.
It looked like the three XRAY NT1 cars were headed for the top 3 places until Erwin began to experience throttle servo problems; his throttle servo would not return to neutral position thus overheating his engine and causing him to drop back to 4th place. Philip moved up to 3rd place. Tom and Jesse finished in 1st and 2nd, with Philip in 3rd and Erwin holding onto 4th with a problematic throttle servo.
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Final Finishing Order
1. Tom Goh XRAY NT1
2. Jesse Wu XRAY NT1
3. Philip Lee 4. Erwin Luhur XRAY NT1
5. Terrence Chung
6. Rosli
7. Hengster
8. Othman
9. Nelson Lee
10. Don Ng
