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The bi-annual FEMCA buggy championships event attracted 96 drivers from all over Asia, namely Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand and Australia and of course the host country Thailand. Most of the factory teams from Taiwan and China were present to compete for this prestigious title.
Team XRAY/Hobbylink from Singapore led by Sam Cheng, followed by Chester Chua and Luigi Venturi, arrived at the beautiful city of Pattaya in Thailand on Sunday night, October 21st. Glenn Phuah and Kelvin Ngow (Malaysia) arrived later on the 23rd due to work commitments. |
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On Monday morning (October 22nd) after a short phone call to race organizer Mr. Chalee, we were shocked to know that the track would be open for practice as it was supposed to be closed until the 23rd for open practice followed by 24th controlled practice. Nonetheless we went ahead to get in some much needed familiarization and practice.
Upon arrival at the Pattaya RC Powerboat track we had agreed that the track was indeed a beautiful one. The surface at first glance seemed to be dusty and possibly slippery but upon closer inspection we knew it was going to be a nice blue groove once practice sessions were done and racing commenced. |
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The track layout was interesting with many obstacles to boot, medium-length straight sections flowed into high-speed, flat-out 180° banked turns, off-camber sections on nearly all apexes⦠it would certainly test drivers♠skill and patience. An almost blind under-bridge section certainly added to the adrenalin rush. In a nutshell, it was a very nice flowing track with tricky obstacles and skill-testing rhythm sections.
On the 23rd we were still trying to get our RB C6 T7â™s tuned up and functioning reliably as they suffered numerous flameoutâ™s during Monday practice. The control fuel was Cosmo RC Buggy Special 30% which we suspected was giving us tuning headaches. Eventually after some advice from the locals we tried other means to make our engines behave. All in all the practice times were put to full use and we were pleased with our XRAY XB8EC setups thus far. |
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On Wednesday the 24th we were strained by another shocking piece of information from the organizer, especially for those who had just arrived the previous night. Today was going to be the opening ceremony and qualifying rounds 1 & 2 (of 6 rounds). The majority of the drivers were quite affected by this as they had expected controlled practice and re-seeding followed by qualifying on the 25th, however drivers showed great sportsmanship and went along with the new race schedule.
After 2 rounds of qualifying per day from the 24th to the 26th, the final race order was realized.
⢠Sam Cheng 14th (semi B)
⢠Chester Chua 15th (quarter A)
⢠Glenn Phuah 21st (quarter A)
⢠Luigi Venturi 42nd (1/8th A)
Full results available here: http://www.femca.in.th/FEMCA%20Results/Results_For_Scale_0.html |
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| On Saturday the 27th, after unfortunate flameouts during qualifying, Luigi Venturi was to run the 1/8th Final âśAâť starting in 7th position. During the grueling fast-paced 20 minute 1/8th final âśAâť, Luigi Venturi shrugged off the nerves and unfortunate qualifying rounds and managed to get on pace to race his XRAY XB8EC superbly to finish in a convincing 2nd place bumping him up to the 1/4 Final âśAâť where he would join fellow team mates Chester Chua and Glenn Phuah. |
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Chester Chua would start the 1/4 A Finals in Pole position, Glenn in 4th and Luigi in 9th. As the final got underway it was obvious that it would be a difficult battle. Chester was in a good position when he suffered engine problems that ended his race at the 11th minute. Glenn and Luigi continued and showed great spirit, coming back from a bad start but positions 1st and 2nd were well established ahead. The 3rd spot was up for grabs and it was an exciting battle between Glenn and Luigi to close in. The pace was extremely fast and the final ended with Glenn in 5th just milliseconds behind Luigi in 4th, a mere few seconds behind the 3rd place. This final was to mark the end of the race for Chester, Glenn and Luigi.
Results available here: http://www.femca.in.th/FEMCA%20Results/Scale_0_4th%20-%20A.html |
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The final was hardly dramatic and most drivers settled into their respective positions pretty early into the race.
Final standings are as follows:
1 Surikarn C
2 Meen V XRAY XB8EC
3 Yeh Hsia Ching
4 Sam Cheng XRAY XB8EC
5 Gems
6 Chen Yi Kuan
7 Hwang Sun Young
8 Charlee
9 Surasak K
10 Yuhtana D
Report by: Sam Cheng/ Team Hobbylink
Pictures by: http://www.femca.in.th |
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