On the weekend of October 22-23, 2005, the XRAY Challenge Korea was held at the GF Raceway in Seoul, the capital of Korea. The event was very well organized by JinHo, the Korean distributor of XRAY products. They invited Martin Hudy and me to race and support the Korea racers with their XRAY touring cars and M18 micro cars.
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Martin and I arrived on Thursday morning after a long flight, and first thing we did was head to the JinHo shop to meet our Korean friends. During the afternoon we made a quick visit to the track (where we already had some track time). Unfortunately, it rained the entire day Friday so we had a nice tour through the city to feel the nice atmosphere of the big city of Seoul, population: 10 million people.
Martin's car (click to enlarge)
Saturday was practice day.
In the morning it was actually pretty cold, but in the afternoon the sun came out and it was nice "after summer" weather. Tyre choice was open so most ran Sorex tyres with Much More inserts. Team Much More was also at the track with number one driver and XRAY fellow team driver Ryan Lee. Ryan is the fastest Korean driver at the moment, so Martin and I had some good competition from him. Motors were open in the Modified class so most guys ran 8-turn motors!
Jilles's car (click to enlarge)
Sunday was raceday!
The raceday started with three qualification rounds followed by three mains. During qualification I set an early TQ which was good enough to stay in front of Ryan who qualified second and Martin in third.
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In the first main, it was a clean start with Ryan and Martin chasing me. After a few laps I opened a small gap which was enough to win the first main. Ryan had a good race and finished in front of Martin. The second final was a copy of the first with me winning but now Martin in second. Second place was still open for the third main. This time Martin had some bad luck at the start which dropped him back to last position. This allowed Ryan to finish in front of him and secured his second place overall.
Final result for Modified Sedan class:
1. Jilles Groskamp XRAY T1FK'05
2. Ryan Lee XRAY T1FK'05
3. Martin Hudy XRAY T1FK'05
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There were a total of seven XRAY cars in the A-main, and the Stock class was also won by an XRAY T1FK'05
After the prize ceremony, JinHo generously offered very nice gifts for all drivers and M18T trucks for the podium winners!
Special thanks go out to Ernie & his brother, Sean of JinHo, and GF raceway for inviting us for this race. Also thanks to Martin and Ryan for their support at the race. Hope to see you guys next year!
