South Korean XRAY importer Jinho Trade had organized an international indoor carpet race in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. The race was held at a big hobby and exhibition center called the Hobbyin World. Inside was a rather small but nice 20x10m carpet track. The track was made up of boards and dots and the layout was rather technical.
I arrived in Korea together with my Swedish friend Andreas Myrberg, whom also had some business relations with the company. On the first day, we settled at the hotel and also did a short interview for RC KOREA magazine. They wrote an article about our visit, and we also had the chance to give some insightful tips and advice for less-experienced drivers.
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The second day started off with open practice. We soon learned that the rules did not allow any tire additives to be used, and so traction levels were very low. It was not quite what we were used to, but it was a new experience and we had to adjust our set-ups accordingly. I used my car which I had previously run at the Snowbird Nationals in the USA. The car has a standard 2.5mm chassis and 2mm top deck. I had to make a couple of adjustments to make it balanced as it was oversteering a lot to begin with. I increased the front droop, took off some camber from the front, and also raised the rear roll center on the upper links. The car was immediately faster and I could turn fast and consistent lap times in open practice.
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Sunday arrived, and we had three qualifying rounds on the schedule, with the fastest round being used to determine the final starting position. In the end I was able to improve a little bit over the three rounds and in the end I held TQ by over a lap.
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The finals ran smoothly with all drivers getting along well without any major crashes. I was able to win all three A-mains by a good margin. The 2nd and 3rd place finishers were also XRAY drivers. Most impressive was the 2nd place finisher, Mr. Ahn, who managed to finish within one lap of me in both A2 and A3.
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I want to express my greatest gratitude towards Sean of Jinho Trade for inviting me in the first place. Visiting Korea was a great experience and the XRAY brand certainly is strong in this market. I hope that I can come back soon. Thank you also to Max, Wooram, Jin, Joe Joe, Kibon and all other nice Koreans who contributed to make my trip very memorable! Thank you also to Andreas for coming along.
