On January 31, 2010, four of us from Team XRAY Malaysia Kuala Lumpur headed to southern Malaysia to attend a fun race organized by Thrust Hobby, one of the XRAY dealers in Johor.
The track was located at Masai Johor with complete basic facilities. It is a smallish track with hobby shop located at same compound. The track surface was a bit bumpy in a few spots but with a lot of grip.
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We arrived on Saturday at about 2:00PM and got ready to hit track for practice sessions. Mahadzir is the first driver who got a good set-up for his RB T9-powered NT1R, while Baha struggled with his team Orion alpha engine. After that he changed to an SM Boss Engine and after a few tests he managed to get the right settings for tomorrow. Meantime, Suah had problems with his car spinning out and he found out the problems came from an incorrect tyre selection. We stayed at the track until late (7:00PM) to help other drivers with their set-ups and other issues before we headed back to the hotel.
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Racing started at 9:00AM and driver turnout was 26 for the GP category and 30 for the EP category. Despite the low driver turnout, competition was still high as most of the registered drivers were good drivers from Malaysia and Singapore.
In qualifying, Mahadzir ran smoothly and finished 1st with 25laps @ 5.11.243 with a fastest lap time of 12.134sec. He maintained this pole position until the end of qualifying. Baha (group 6) managed to make 24 laps @ 5.02.263 with a fastest lap time of 11.716sec after struggling with many back markers in the group; this put him in 3rd position for main final lineup. Suah (from same group) completed 24 laps @ 5.03.499 and his fastest lap time for the heat was 11.961sec.
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In the final, XRAY dominated the race with 8 cars in the A final. Mahadzir, after a smooth start, managed to make a gap from the others and after the 2nd refueling the pole position kept changing between Mahadzir and Baha due to their differing refueling strategies. The competition between the two drivers suddenly ended when Baha suffered an engine flameout which put him 4 laps down. Mahadzir took advantage of this and drove flawlessly to victory.
