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Dalton Touring Masters 2006 Indonesia (19/07/2006)

By:: Per-Ola Kent Hard

8-9:th of July in Jakarta Indonesia

The annual Dalton Touring Masters (DTM) was held on the JITC track in Senayan area in downtown Jakarta in Indonesia. This year for the first time it would be two classes, one for 1:10 200mm and one also for 1:8TR cars.

In total 89 drivers had signed up (31 in 1:8 and 58 in the 1:10 class), very good showing the popularity of this race organised by Serpent distributor The Dalton Shop. Drivers came from Indonesia, Bali, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Holland and Sweden!

The Race

This was the first race in Asia for the brand new Serpent 720 car, used by four drivers Peter Wijaya from Indonesia, Suruth from Thailand, Rene Cornella from Serpent Holland and me Peo Hard from Sweden.

After 4 rounds of qualifications in very hot conditions three 720´s made it to the final, Peter W 2:nd, Suruth 3:rd and Rene 7:th (Rene was a little unlucky in the qualies, he for sure was faster than his position), for myself I qualified on a dissapoiting 11:th position 0.3 seconds from A-main with no chance of bumping up. Some problems in the qualifications made me miss the A-main this time, laptime wise my speed was a-main, but hey that counts for nothing..... Taking TQ with 0.3 seconds did Azri Amri from Malaysia with a Mugen, well done!

The JITC is the main track in Indonesia so some local drivers are very fast at this track, they can almost drive it in their sleep.... Different from racing in Europe is that the nitro limit is free, 5-port engines is allowed and also outlaw pipes. Rene and I used standard Mega 3-P ZX engines with EFRA legal pipes, our engines was ok but not the fastest I think....

Setup wise the S-720 performed very well, Peter and Suruth used one-way with 35W shocks while Rene and I used a front ball-diff (the one from the S-710 car fits) and 45W shocks, all used red springs, low rollcenter both front and rear, for the rest the car pretty much box standard.

A-main
In the final both Peter, Suruth, Rene was in the lead for some time but got unlucky, Peter got some engine trouble, Suruth was hit by another car on the straight and the car broke, Rene had the rear wheelnut coming loose several times because of the very hot condition. Peter W showed the great potential of the new 720 car with a Mega MF by making the fastest laptime, a new lapreckord for touring bodies I think! The S-720 cars was the fastest cars on the track, but unlucky this day.

Won the race did Indonesian Teddy Syach, with a G4, a very good driver who was in the WC final in Brazil 2004, 2:nd Erwin Luhur from Indonesia with a Kyosho and 3:nd Azri Amri with his Mugen.

1:8TR class
TQ was taken by Teddy Syach with his Mugen-JP combo, just a head of team Serpent driver from Thailand Mr Suruth. In the A-main final also here the fastest lap was made by Peter Wijaya now with his Serpent 960 and Mega MF engine, but winning after a very good run did Suruth with his Serpent 960 with Max power engine, second was Mr Alex Chan from Hong Kong with a Serpent 960 and RB engine, 3:rd Mr Keor from Malaysia with a Mugen car.

Summary

A very friendly and well organised race, credit to Mr Susanto from Serpent Indonesia, but also to the two race directors Mr Aditya and Mr Surrianto. Very well done all of you!!!!

It is a pleasure to come and race with you all in Indonesia!

My special thanks to Mr Peter Wijaya and Susanto from the Dalton shop for inviting me and Rene Cornella to this race, thank you!!!

Thanks also to my sponsors;

Serpent Motorsport, Holland
GQ Products, Hong Kong
Dalton Shop, Indonesia