Round 7 of our National 1/8 GP On-road Championship was held at Sunter S.I.S track, Jakarta last week. The weather was dry and sunny, with normal surface traction.
In the heats, Sadikin Sutrisno and Teddy Syach battled for pole position with Suwardi Suliandy close by. After three rounds of 5-minute heats, Sadikin took the TQ honor with 21-laps 5:01.628 followed by Teddy Syach with 21-laps 5:03.652 and Suwardi with 21-laps 5:04.837. Tons took 4th place with 5:09.116 and Heri Susanto took 5th only 0.6 sec behind Tons.
The organizer for this race used the bump-up system with the Top 6 drivers going straight into the 45-min A-Main Final, while others competed from lower finals for the remaining 4 positions to have the right to join the next upper finals.
In the semi-final, Franky Aliang was unfortunate due to a loose rear shock and was unable to start on the grid despite his very good driving later on. Soeyanto had a great start but had to retire after an incident with another car. Richard maintained 2nd position right from the start, but had to give up the position after making some errors at the 10-min mark. It was a clear run for Hendry and Kenji Taira to take 1st and 2nd positions at the end. Usman Halim and Linardi had consistent driving during the whole semi-final runs and were able to clinch 3rd and 4th positions to claim the last two spots for the Main Final.
In the Main Final, Sadikin was able to maintain the lead right after the start, with Teddy close behind. Suwardi lost his 3rd position at the first corner, but regained it immediately with Tons, Heri and Hendri close behind. At the 15-min mark, Teddyâ™s engine stalled and Suwardi moved up to 2nd position. Teddy was charging all the way from back and trying to take back 2nd position from Suwardi for the next 15 minutes. After 32 minutes running, his electronics had a problem and he had to retire early and so Hendry moved up to 3rd position. Heri was following close behind but soon retired due to a radio glitching problem.
At the 42-min mark, while most spectators predicted that Sadikin was cruising for his perfect win, bad luck struck again. One of his front knuckle bearings froze up and the excessive heat melted the lightweight wheel-rim. Another pitstop was needed to change to a new front tyre, which cost him the lead (which was taken over by Suwardi).
At the end, Suwardi finished 1st while Sadikin took 2nd behind him to make it a 1-2 podium finish for XRAY RX8.
