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Semi Finals 1/2B

Semi Finals 1/2B
Originally uploaded by phlim.

Compared to the A group, racing action here is rather subdue. The reason being that all the drivers here were very well matched. Once they pace out each other, they pretty much stayed the say throughout the 20 minutes. If I remember well, the fastest lap time came from Raul Peris at 50.XXX seconds. Raul held steady throughout with an average lap time of between 52 and 53+ seconds. One interesting watch here is that we have 4 drivers from Taiwan in this final. Wu-Chung is the favorite and he did very well and qualified for the Grand Final. In the last minute, excitment was aroused from Ming-Hui who seem to be pushing to skip the last refuel so that he could maintain his position. His gamble didn't work out well because in actual fact, Ming-Hui later clarified, he could not hear his Mechanic calling him for refuel (actually his Mechanic called him so many times and finally gave up calling him in). His car ran out of fuel on the final lap just before entering the left side straight that would have brought him home.

Okay, before I forget, from the right we have Raul Peris, Reckward, Ricardo, Martin (Oz), Yannick, Hsia-Ching, Wu-Chung, Huan-Pin, Ming-Hui and Frans.

So we have a concentration of 4 drivers from Taiwan. Martin, Hsia-Ching & Huan-Pin were driving HN X1CRs. Wu-Chung is driving a GS Storm, Raul is on a MP777, not too sure about the rest.

Semi Finals 1/2 A

Semi Finals 1/2 A
Originally uploaded by phlim.

The semi finals A group saw Mr. Atsushi Kawamoto in pole, which means he was the TQ of the event. The following positions were taken by Kanai, Linus, Miguel, Robert B, Robert G, Chopin, Joseph, Vray & Lenzi. Chopin, being the local Indonesian favorite had the most applause from the ground, unfortunately he didn't finish within the rankings to advance into the Grand Final. Chopin ended up in 6th position and his car failed to pass scrutineering after the race. Kawamoto and Kanai didn't have a good start, but Kawamoto did very well in chasing through the traffic and manage to join the Grand Final. Kanai's luck was down rather south and DNF. Miguel gave a superb performance and lead all the way. In the midst of this 20 minute final the position changes every minute between the 3rd to 5th position cars. It was by far the most exciting sub final event. I would safely say, you could miss all the other finals, but you will be sorry if you miss this semi final A group.

Team Korea

Team Korea
Originally uploaded by phlim.

This is the second time I met Ethan Kim, Korea Team Manager, he is the one standing on the right. The first time I met Kim was in 2005 at the FEMCA Championship in Malang. The one standing next to Kim should be Mr. Mike Lee, I think he was the one I bump into at the Hotel's Business Centre while I was trying to upload my pictures using their 22Kbps dail up line.

Team Oz

Team Oz
Originally uploaded by phlim.

Bob and his team from down under. Bob is seated on the left and Wolhuter is the one standing with his greenish blue HN T-shirt. Wolhuter finished 8th overall in the Grand Final.

Taiwan Team Manager

Taiwan Team Manager
Originally uploaded by phlim.

He was the only Taiwan driver who could speak and understand English well, so he represented bis fellow drivers from Team HN, Team HoBao & Team GS.

Full Track Ancol

Full Track Ancol
Originally uploaded by phlim.

This is stitched together with 3 pictures, so perspective wise, there is some distortion, but it should give you a pretty good idea of how the track actually looks like from the drivers' eye level up in the driver stand.

Grand Finale

This is just my personal point of view, do read it with a pinch of salt - yeah !!!

This was an eventful run. The rain started at about the 20-minute mark and lightning could be seen from a very far distance (we could not hear the thunder, so it must be very far). The iFMAR buggy rules and general rules has no mention on the issue of rain, so racing continued. It was at the 35-minute mark that a lightning strike was heard in the vicinity. It was a very loud crack that startled me too. A minute later, Mr Sanders called to stop the race and we all huddle off the driver stand into the paddock.

All the cars were impounded, but Vray had to catch his home flight and could not sit out the rain, so he asked to get his car out of impound, with full knowledge that he cannot continue to race.

Less than an hour later the rain stopped and the marshals started clearing out the water. Mr. Sanders and a discussion with me and we both agreed to follow the IC section rules which had a clause on rain, it says: If the final has completed less than 25% (15 minutes of a 1 hour final), then the whole final has to be re-run. If it is between 25% and 75% (>15mins buts less than 45mins) then when conditions permit, the remaining time should be run and the results added together. Finally if more than 75% has completed (ie, >45mins) then the final is done and the results shall be final.

Therefore, in this instance we completed 36+minutes and we will run the remaining 23 minutes to complete the final. After the announcement, the Spain Team Manager requested that the views of the team managers be heard. Mr Sander explains that he can hear out the Team Managers but the decision rests on the International Jury. The team manager meeting was called. Only team managers of the top 10 finalists were to be present. The meeting brought out 4 proposals in all and finally the majority (5 of 7) Team Managers voted for cancelling the 36 minutes results and use the semi-final qualifying result as the final result. Mr Sander then called for a International Jury meeting with a representative each from all Blocs, only FAMAR was not represented as there were no officials from FAMAR. Mr Mike Myers represented ROAR. The International Jury's decision was unanimous, the remaining 23 minutes is to be run and the total results added together, the starting position should be in the order of finishing of the 36 minute run. Drivers were given 15 minutes to prepare their cars, three minutes to warm up and they were off for their final 23-minute run.

At the end of the 23 minutes, it seems obvious to all, from the RMonitor screen that Raul Peris was the winner based on the total laps of 61.

The final standings are as follows:
Raul Peris SPAIN 61 laps
Miguel Matias PORTUGAL 60 laps
Ricardo Gomez SPAIN 60 laps
Robert Gustafsson SWEDEN 59 laps
Joseph Quagraine FINLAND 58 laps
Atsushi Kawamoto JAPAN 57 laps
Yannick Aigoin FRANCE 56 laps
Martin Wolhuter AUSTRALIA 55 laps
Wu-Chung, Chen TAIWAN 46 laps
Vray Guillaume FRANCE 29 laps

Uploaded pictures in Flickr.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phlim/tags/2006preworld/

Videos at YouTube.com

This video will give you the full track view from the left to the right. I shot this from the driver stand, standing in the middle of the stand. I only brought my digital camera so the best video I could record is this 320x240x30fps video of VCD quality. If you don't mind the grainy picture you can play it back at double size. The URL to the video is at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYlJLT_siXQ

This next one is of Mr Hudy explaining a point to Stanley, Sam and Chester in the paddock area:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3IlT-SV_U8

This next one shows a car going up the pit ramp:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBYUgdkCI54

Race action in the mid section of the track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgDcQ1cGcHM

Race action at the top left hairpin corner, or would it be more accurate to call it the far left hairpin corner, whatever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DV4Oi7Pu4w

The next video is still uploading, I can't remember who exactly it was, but I was impress by his attempt at the quad jump with a 1-1-2, he also drove a 2-1 at the triple jump and a 2-1-2 at the penta jump. When it is ready I'll post the URL.

Syaaf from Malaysia

Syaf from Malaysia
Originally uploaded by phlim.

Syaaf was doing mechanic for one of the Malaysian Team drivers. Then we remembered our good friend Danny Teh who could not be here due to his new contracts. So we decided to have this picture taken to tell Danny that we all miss him.

Hairpin corner with a jump

Hairpin corner with a jump
Originally uploaded by phlim.

This shows a car moving up the hair pin ramp on the lower right area. In the background you can see the "washboard" section. This "washboard" section was challenging, Yannick preferred the outside line which seems to be less bumpy but it requires him to dive into the hairpin corner at the end of this section. Raul Peris and the others prefer to slowdown at this section roll pass it as best as they could and enter the hairpin corner in the fastest possible driving line.

John Agus (L) & Sam Cheng (R)

John Agus (L) & Sam Cheng (R)
Originally uploaded by phlim.

Mr John Agus preparing his Kyosho MP777 Sp2. John is also the Chief Organizer of the World and this pre-World event. I was most impress by his driving. The last time I saw him drive was in May 2005 at Malang for the 2005 FEMCA event. Compartively he has shown a lot more maturity in driving under extreme pressures. The other guy is Singapore's participant, Mr. Sam Cheng. In contract to Mr. John Agus, I was disappoint at Sam's performance. In his quarter finals, he did very well in the first half of the 20 minute final. However, once the position change after re-fueling, which is actually inevitable, he pushed over his own boundary and lost his marbles. The last time I saw Sam drove seriously, was also in Malang in 2005 a the FEMCA race. There he showed so much maturity in his driving - cool as a cucumber.

2006 iFMAR Pre World Buggy Day UNO

I was stunned when I reach the track, there were no pools of water from the thunderstorm last night. Then I was enlightened by the organizers, their workers were pumping and sponging water in middle of the night. Wow, that is what I call resources man.

The drivers were a little lax, so the start was delayed a little from the planned 8am till about 9am. The control practice got underway. By about 10am the sky darkens, although I was told that a weatherman had been engaged, it poured shortly after. So the planned opening ceremony at 10:30am was cancelled. We all kept our fingers crossed and the rain stopped after a couple of minutes. The marshalls then spring into action with their pumps and sponges and a little later the control practice continued. However, all in all we were running 1.5 hours late. It was almost 2:30pm when we finally got Heat 1 Round 1 off the ground. By the time we call it a day at 7:30pm, we completed Round 1, but Round 2 had Heats 1 & 2 left out as it was already too dark to race.

It was fun, I get to watch Yannic and Kanai run their cars. But I was impress by Chen Wu Chung, he was good. As the track was still rather wet, the fastest lap time clock was around 52+ seconds. I am looking forward to tomorrow for an exciting day.

Well that's all for now, I haven't had my dinner yet. So no new picture upload tonight, I need to go and eat.

Log entry Earth date 1st March 2006

One more day to go. We woke up to a wet wet wet morning, no rain, no sun, but wet. Met Mr. Sander at the buffet breakfast at 8am and we had a good chat. Mr Sander left for the track at 9pm, I stay back and had a walk around the hotel and took some pictures with my camera.

Just before noon, I joined Mr Sander for a shopping trip to the Sim Lim Square equivalent which they call Dusit Mangga Dua. A group of about 3 buildings and a hotel, all linked together with walkways. Mr Sander shopped for a Nikon Cookpix 8MP camera, they quoted him a price of RP4million.

At 4pm we made it back to the track where the organizer Mr. Nicky Tjonnadi had called for a team manager's meeting. Both Nicky and Sanders gave a brief to all present. Some interesting points brought up were:
1. iFMAR will soon be announcing the abolishment of all 2 chamber pipes, there will be a grace period, but if anyone is shopping for a pipe they should all go for a 3 chamber pipe.
2. A lot of guys during free practice was flying up the pit lane ramp, the organizer will probably be adding a speed hump to prevent any mechanic from being hit in the head by a flying 5kg buggy.
3. The Control Practice on 2nd March will be used to re-seed all drivers.
4. With 5 rounds of heats, the best 3 will be used to seed the X'mas tree finals.

With that we ended a rather uneventful day here in Ancol.

Log entry Earth date 28th February 2006

I arrived at about 1pm local time. The track was all quiet, because of rain in the morning and the surface is still rather damp. By about 2:30pm, the first brave one took to the track in accordance with their booked slot for free practice. So the first 15 minute slot we see 2 cars, then the next 15 minute slot there were 4 cars and before you know it, there were 15 cars practicing on the damp track. However, they were not the fast ones, most of them were doing 55+ seconds.

Heard the the paddock, that on the 27th, the fastest lap time clocked was 47+ seconds by driver of the name Raaul or something like that. If I could get his full name, I'll post. The paddock is saying that the average lap time to keep is 50 seconds. Heard from Tesin (a local event official) that the American team has inform them that they are not coming. This has given rise to a participation problem for the organizers. Because there were a lot of seatsallotted to the team and the organizer is now ramaging through their records to invite those on the waiting and reject list.

It was great to meet up with the Mr. Sander in person. I also met Mr Hudy and his XB8 too. The Taiwan contingent is present in strength, with a large group from GS and Hong Nor. There is no Internet access in the hotel room and this is being created from the hotel's biz centre with a dial up line at 26kbps. So the pictures and videos are taking ages to upload and it does seem to be hung - sorry folks, there may be no pictures or videos to share - okay some pictures went through and this is the URL:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phlim/tags/2006preworld/