Round 6 of the Just Hobby Nitro Challenge kicked off at 10:00AM. The weather was good with a slight overcast in the morning. Qualifying started off with three rounds of 7-minute heats. All the drivers were trying to put in good runs in the heats in order to climb to a higher main.
Qualifying was run in a fast and furious pace with five XRAY NT1 cars in the top 10 positions.
Tom Goh (NT1) got pole position, followed by James Loke (NT1) and Jesse Wu (NT1). This impressive qualifying was a result of exchanging setup tips among the XRAY drivers.
Qualifying order: 1) Tom Goh XRAY NT1
2) James Loke XRAY NT1
3) Jesse Wu XRAY NT1
4) Ben Seet
5) Nelson Lee 6) Leslie Baker XRAY NT1
7) Noordin 8) Don Ng XRAY NT1
9) Hengster
10) Mazlan Mazz
L-to-R: Bryan, James, Ah Weng, Leslie, Ryan (click to enlarge)
In the final 45min A main final Tom and James both pulled out to a comfortable lead with both drivers swapping positions for 15min. It was a really close battle between Tom and James as both had a very similar race pace.
(click to enlarge)
At the 20min mark Tom experienced engine problems and had to pit a few times for engine tuning, thus losing position to James. With fast and consistent driving Leslie moved up to 2nd position behind James. Jesse had a bad start and his XRAY suffered damage to the brakes, making him lose precious time in the pit repairing it, thus making it impossible to regain the lost time despite a very good handling car.
XRAY drivers: Dennis, Ryan, James, Leslie, Tom and Jesse (click to enlarge)
Don Ng Xray was running a consistent race pace, putting him very close to a podium position just behind Mugen driver Nelson Lee. Unfortunately, time was not on his side and Don eventually finished behind Nelson.
Final finishing order: 1) James Loke XRAY NT1
2) Leslie Baker XRAY NT1
3) Nelson Lee 4) Don Ng XRAY NT1
5) Hengster 6) Tom Goh XRAY NT1
7) Mazlan Mazz
8) Noordin 9) Jesse Wu XRAY NT1
10) Ben Seet
Tom trusted mechanic and racing buddy Nelson (click to enlarge)
