> News

Serpent Nitro Tour Hong Kong 2006 (21/01/2006)

By:: Per-Ola Kent Hard

Peo goes Asia again......

Hong Kong 13-15:th of January 2006.
After having a break of four months I was very eager to go racing and meeting friends from all over the world again, in northern Europe that is not possible for this time of the year (we got snow and minus celcius for the moment), but an invitation from Mr Shui at World Model in Hong Kong (the main Serpent Asia distributor) changed that.

After driving my car to Malmoe Sweden I took the train to Copenhagen Denmark, then a short flight to Amsterdam where I met up with fellow Serpent friends Michael Salven, Richard Keur and Italian drivers Massimo Fantini and Fabio Domanin. So after an 11 hour flight we arrived in Hong Kong and we where picked up by Mr Shui, after a short stop at the hotel and the World Model company on the HK island we headed towards the track in the mainland “new terretories” close to China. It was now thursday afternoon, everyone was eager to try the track witch looked very nice. Unpacking all the stuff took some time, truing some tirese etc, first time out the car felt ok and the traction was very good, both 1:8 and 1:10 cars drove at the same time, I was to give way for a faster 1:8 car, bumped a curvestone, slided on the roof into a concrete barrier and broke both front and rear end… what a great start after 5 minutes…. I was so happy…. not. The sun was on its way down so no more racing for me.

Friday

Friday another sunny day, wow I really miss the summer, 20-25 degree and sunny is so nice, on friday a lot more drivers came to practice and the track got even more grip (just resurfaced a few months ago and very smooth) and I started to like the fast fluent layout. But now I had to much grip in the car and in the fingers and I started to roll-over hmmm that is something I really don’t like. Tried to move from 40 to 42 shore tires, changed from the Stratus 3 to a Mazda 6 body, went from one-way to solid in the front, not good enough rolled over and broke the rear shock-tower. Ok pratice was over, just time to prepare for the qualifications starting on saturday morning. During the night I decided to reduce the amount of sleep and working of the car, I copied the setup of Fabio who seemed to have a not perfect but ok setup.

Saturday

Saturday morning the pits are now crowded with the 120 Serpent drivers from Hong Kong, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Macao, Indonesia, Holland, Germany, Italy and Sweden. After the registration where the drivers got free tires, fuel, body, t-shirts and a banquet ticket it was time to take some photos for a memory of this nice event. Then off we go….
The first round of the four 10 min qualifies went ok, not very fast but no major incidents, for the second round I wanted more steering to be able to go faster….. no good traction roll again…. 3:rd round same story, laptimes were good but to much rolling. 4:th round and the car felt pretty ok, some understeer but drivable, but a little hit from a competitor (we ran 12 cars in the heats to save time) made me loose a steering rod, shit. A lot of drivers improved in the last round and I was removed from B-main to C-main (yeah not D-main I found out…. haha I must learn some chinese for next time).

1:10 200mm

Sunday, my final lasted about one corner before I was hit and ended up in the concrete with a missing steering rod, Richard and Michael fixed it so I could rejoin after some time, I am not sure but I think I ended up on a 7:th place. Sometimes you have a good race, other times you have a nice race, this was a nice race with good weather, nice track but some bad luck and a little lack of knowledge when it comes to tracktion roll settings. My Mega engine was really flying by the way….

In the final local TQ driver Lau Chi On had a really good race, fast engine, good car, smooth driving made him score a very deserved win, fast was also local driver Danny Dung, he got 2:nd place, fastest laptimes was made by Serpent factory driver from Thailand Mr Suruth Vataniyapramote he got a 4:th place at the end. Fabio Domanin drove nice and made some really good laps too, but some engine trouble made him end up on a 7:th place. Richard Keur who also made it to the A-final drove well until his engine gave up, to bad for Richard

1:10 200mm
1.   Lau Chi On (TQ), Serpent 710/Mega
2.   Dung Danny, Serpent 710/Sirio
3.   Lee Willam, Serpent 710/Max
4.   Suruth Vataniyapramote, Serpent 710/Max
5.   Surasak Kerinsaguna, Serpent 710/Max
6.   Cheung Kwok Wai, Serpent 710/Max
7.   Fabio Domanin, Serpent 710/Max
8.   Lee Chris, Serpent 710/Palmaris
9.   Thongchai Suebsaithai, Serpent 710/Max
10.   Richard Keur, Serpent 710/Mega

1:8IC Track

In the 1:8 class Mr Massimo Fantini (also a good dart player..hihi) had the TQ and lead the final from start to finish after a solid and fast run. The new track lap record is now 13,69 s set by Massimo in the final. Michael Salven also drove fast but his engine did not have the same power as Massimo mainly caused by a loose clutch and leaking glow-plug so he had to settle for second after a nice run, 3:rd finished Chiu Samuel after a good final. After the race all the drivers were invited to a dinner down town.

1:8IC Track
1.   Massimo Fantini (TQ), Serpent 960/Max
2.   Michael Salven, Serpent 960/Mega
3.   Chiu Samuel, Serpent 960/Max
4.   Chan Alex, Serpent 960/RB
5.   Choy Kam Man, Serpent 960/Max
6.   Suruth Vataniyapramote, Serpent 960/Max
7.   Wong Chun Ping, Serpent 960/Max
8.   Ng Kwok Fai, Serpent 960/Max
9.   Chui Kai Leung, Serpent 960/Max
10.   Tang Wing Hung, Serpent 960/Mega

Resume

This was my first visit to Hong Kong, after all I had a relly good time, the athmosphere at the track was really good and I hope everyone enjoyed the great event hosted by World Model at the ACO track in Hong Hong!

Special thanks to Mr Shui and the staff of World Model for inviting me and all the support I got, I am very greatful. Also thanks to Michael and Richard for all the help during the race, and to Fabio for the setup assistance.

Thanks for a great time everyone!

Until we meet again……