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News  Racing
XB9 Wins Point Race 2, Kuwait |
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| Report by Nawaf Al-Abdulrazak Pro-Hobbies Kuwait |
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| A very cold race day, first to run was 1/8 Buggy Electric, after trying out the XB808E a couple of days earlier on the track with some new settings for the high grip conditions that the track presents, the XB808E felt good with plenty of cornering speed and very little chance of traction rolling on the corners, however lacking a little on the straight the XB808E ran really well for the 1/8 Electric Qualifiers 1 Round, securing first place easily with TQ, tire of choice were AKA Impact Soft slightly worn out from the previous race which provided plenty of grip on the high traction track. The entire main were running AKA tires. ESC of choice was Tekin as well as the motor, there is no doubt the Tekin ran flawlessly with no issues and the drivers were happy with the overall performance of the packages and tenability of the software. |
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| Truggy qualifiers were next, and with the cold weather the engine ran a little on the rich side for our truggies myself, Abdul Aziz Mohammed, Nasser Al Fayez and Bader Al Shemeri, however setup was dialed and we were very happy with the overall handling of the XT8â™s and results were satisfactory for final starting grid positions. Tire of choice were Truggy impact tires, as many other drivers found that the AKA Impacts provided plenty of grip with minimal wear for the qualification runs. 90% of the drivers were running AKA soft Impact tires. Werks engines performed flawlessly, though the change of the weather from mildly cold to extremely cold during the late afternoon did show in the overall engine response, something that was addressed in the finals. |
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Next up were Buggy Nitro Qualifiers.
Since I did not have the time to break in the new car on the track I decided it would be best to go easy on the car and get some more hands on the track with a new setup, however Pro-hobbies Xray Driver Aziz Mohammed was laying it down on the track with some very fast laps and managed to finish TQ and first 2/3 quals putting in the first start position in the starting grid and myself in 5th position. |
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| 1/8 A Main electric started off, me being in pole position had a good clean start, till the second section of the track where another car rear ended me badly costing me a very bad start, catching up slowly in the 7mins mains I swapped position with second place a couple of times, however the tension due to the first accident got the better of me and lost concentration, however still managed to finish 3rd place on the podium, a few seconds behind 2nd place. Once again AKA proved to be the tire of choice for the all the drivers, AKA was really leaving the competition behind. |
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| Truggy finals was fast and full of action, no luck for shop driver Abdulaziz Mohammed on a bad landing his steering rod broke and he was out of the race, which left myself to fight for the top three positions, running a 20 mins mains with one pit stop was very daunting this day as a lot of drivers flamed out due to engines getting rich, so having decided to pit for safety, which was a very bad call on my part, costed me dearly and finishing my position in 3rd place, wit Nasser Al Fayez good run placing him in 5th and Bader Al Shemeri in 7th, the Truggy was very dialed and handled perfectly well on the track, the overall mood was we did well considering this was our 2nd official race with our truggies and for some the first time. |
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Buggy Nitro A main finals, yet another fast action final, with drivers really pushing their limits to battle it out for the top 3 positions, shop driver abdulaziz mohammed being first on the starting grid, bad luck flamed out on start, with nearly a minute worth of delay time to restart his car in the pit in a sub 35â™s lap track, this pushed aziz to his extreme tension limits. For me it was just another race day with as usual bad race start being nudged and flipped over by another driver dropping me down to 8th position from 5th starting grid position. AKA without a doubt dominated the race with 99% of the drivers using the Impact in various compounds, leaving no room for the competition.
Aziz, kept his cool and drove to his limits to regain his 1st position back once again from 12th position, and myself from 8th position to 4th position still with stress management getting in the way.
Having said that, Pro-Hobbies Shop Driver Abdulaziz Mohammed took first place in A-Mains final and myself 4th position, Bader Al Shemeri with no luck with his transponder issue not working did not make it the final, however new talent Nasser Al Fayez showed that by keeping his cool and more track time, you can keep up with the fast drivers on the track, No luck for Abdullah Eshab new kid on the block and not to mention Hassan Al Khudhari with still missing track time practice to push their standards up the scale with the fast drivers, Feras Al Saleh a new entry this season had engine problems but proved to be a fast driver if he would just ease of the throttle a little more. Powered all by Werks B6 Pro running AKA tires impact Soft. |
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| I had requested all the Xray drivers to take a group photo in what really represents the spirit of the Xray drivers at the track, the picture speaks for itself. A big thanks to all my customers and Xray to bringing us the best of the RC hobby. |
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