Round 2 of the 1/8 National championship and Jakarta GP 1/10 GP series was combined into one event on the brand new asphalt at the Jakarta International Twin Circuit.
After the track had been re-asphalted it had very good grip level, with the best lap time dropping by 1 second compared to the previous track surface. This was the debut race of the XRAY RX8 for me and my teammate of XRAY Indonesia, Sadikin Sutrisno who came back again to RC scene after one year away.
In 1/8 qualifying, my RX8 was really on top performance and I was able to take the TQ spot from the 1st qualifying result with 19 laps @ 5.00⦠so very close to 20 laps. In the second qualifier I tried using a higher downstop to make the car more aggressive. My best lap went lower but my overall heat result was slower because I had some traffic to avoid. Sadikin had a clutch shoe problem in the first qualifier, gave an impressive performance in the third qualifier to get 19 laps @ 5.02. It was great to see the RX8 make a 1-2 start position for the Main Final at the debut race.
In 1/10 qualifying I had a battery receiver problem in the first qualifier so I didn't start my first qualifier. In the second qualifier, my car had a little bit of understeer. I made a mistake when my car went through the curb and flipped⦠not a good run. I tried again in the third qualifier and even though I had used harder front spring and changed the bodyshell, the car was still understeering a little bit. I ended qualifying in 2nd place by only 0.096sec behind pole sitter Fayakhun.
In the 1/8 final, Sadikin took the early lead and I dropped to 4th. After 4 minutes I was able to take over 2nd place only 7sec behind Sadikin. I tried to maintain my tyres because I didn't know how many millimeters of my tyres would be gone on the new track surface. I was planning to kept my gaps from Sadikin between 7-9 seconds. Unfortunately, Sadikin's car had a problem which caused the bottom cap of his front shock to break after 25 minutes. He had to have an extra pitstop and I took over the lead. Sadikin finally stopped at 38 minutes. I was able to make a 7 lap gap to 2nd position, Sani. At that time I knew that my tyres were still on good performance. I tried to push hard to break Sadikin's best lap on main final, 15.419. Finally I did it on lap 162 and I recorded a 15.267. Finally, I finished 1st followed by Sani Nugroho and Hendry. Sadikin finished 5th. Only 5 drivers finished the full 45 minutes race from the original 13 drivers on the main final.
In the 1/10 final I was able to take the lead from Fayakhun after 4 minutes. I made a 5sec gap until my car traction rolled at 9 minutes. I had cut the gap to 8 seconds from Fayakhun. I passed Fayakhun again at 18 minutes and enjoyed the lead position. Unfortunately, my mechanic missed the fifth pitstop call at 25 minutes and I had an engine flameout. I was able to get back out again and was 1 lap behind Fayakhun. I pushed my car to the limit to cut the gap and I did it at 33 minutes but unfortunately I flamed out again at 38 minutes and spent much time for an extra pitstop. At the end, Fayakhun finished 1st and I finished this "hard luck race" in 2nd place and Budi Satriyo in 3rd.
