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Drivers: 140
Weather: SUNNY
Track condition: Dry, dusty, high speed and bumpy.
A week after the Malacca Cup in Malaysia, the drivers from Team Hobby Link Singapore was invited to the annual Xtreme Cup in Ancol Jakarta (Indonesia). The permanent track has a mixture of technical and high-speed sections. |
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| Many drivers had troubles clearing the large set of double jumps that was situated at a corner exit where a good run up was difficult; hence many chose to clear them individually. The track deteriorated badly throughout the day and most drivers used their first out of two rounds of qualifying before going into a Christmas tree final system. |
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| We landed in the city of Jakarta Indonesia on Friday but it was track repair day so we could not get any track time. Many of the local drivers already had practice on the days prior, but the track would re-open again early Saturday morning from 6:30am to 8:30am where we hoped to get some practice. |
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| Being the only foreign team, we tried to arrive at the track at 6:30am Saturday morning. Unfortunately, the track was muddy and wet after yesterdayâ™s repair. Glenn and Fei tried their cars but felt the mud building up and were nowhere near race conditions, so practice was stopped. We then used an open area designated for testing away from the track to make sure our engines and clutches were set correctly. |
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| Race started punctually after the opening ceremony, drivers briefing and picture taking. After the first round of heats, local favorite John Agus held provisional TQ with the only 20 lapper, followed by 6 very fast 19 lappers and all the way 18lappers all the way down to about 100th position. |
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| As usual a few changes were made: lengthen the car, full anti squat, 20 degrees total caster, remove front roll bar, and replaced with a 2mm roll bar on the back (home made at the hotel by Mr. Lee Chih Fei a great friend and racing partner, who made a come back after laying off RC racing for 8years. |
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| After the total two round of qualifying, Sam Cheng (Xray/RB) and Glenn Phuah (Xray/RB) qualified for the Ä˝ final, Chester Chua (Xray/RB) 1/8 final, Lee Chih Fei (Xray/RB) 1/16 final and Luigi Venturi (Xray/RB) 1/64 final. Lee climbed up 2 finals and ended up running in the semi final. He then suffered steering servo problems that prevented him from climbing further. Glenn climbed up to the semi final but fuel tank problems (O-ring) did not finish good enough to make it to the grand final. Sam finished 3rd in the semi final and so secured a place in the grand final which he then finished 6th overall. Congratulations to Sam to finish in the top ten. |
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| In the 45 minute final, Sam started on grid position 7, it was like a war zone for him, all he remembers is exchanging 5th and 6th position with John Agus (Mugen/JP) so the fight ended with Sam in 6th position after John Agus in 5th. Team Hobby Link thanks especially John for his hospitality and all the drivers with very clean driving. |
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It had been very happy outing with Xray/RB team Singapore; I must say the XB8 combined with RB engines have given us alot of confidence, together with a great show of teamwork. Nevertheless, special thanks to the organizers Xtreme Hobby especially to Mr. Tesin Chandra, for arranging our accommodation and transport, Mr. Surharta (Tata) for transport and Mr. Chopin for all the extra help. We are definitely looking forward to the next Xtreme Cup.
setup at: www.teamxray.com
Sam Cheng: A final 6th XB-8/RB
Glenn Phuah/Lee Chih Fei semi final. XB-8/RB
Chester Chua Ä˝ final. XB-8/RB
Luigi Venturi 1/64 final. XB-8/RB
Race report by: Sam/Glenn
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