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Salven's View - Busy in Bangkok!! (17/01/2007)
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- Laurant
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- 2007 Serpent 'Nitro Tour' Bangkok
Michael Salven travelled to Thailand for what turned out to be the biggest Serpent Nitro Tour meeting yet. Here is his account of this successful event......
Dear Racer,
My racing year always starts in January. That is the time the annual Serpent nitro tour starts in Asia. It is held in different countries and this year it was in Bangkok.
The Asian nitro tours are organized perfectly by Mr. Shiu from World Hobby in Hong Kong. This time in co-operation with Serpent distributor Asia Model from Thailand. The starting fee includes one set of tires, fuel, a body shell, a t-shirt, free bus to the track and a banquet at the end of Sunday! No wonder that a record number of 140 drivers took part in the race from all around Asia.
Stef, my mechanic (and Serpent sales-manager), and me arrived about noon on Friday. The temperature was around 30 degrees C in the 3 racing days, quite a difference from could and wet Europe. Most of the drivers from all over Asia had already a day of practice and the track had a very good traction. The track itself is very nice to drive, very fast with a big sweeper at the end of the straight, which is full-throttle with a 1/8 scale car!
After braking in a new Mega ZX 21, I did some very good laps. But there were some other very good drivers as well. Beside the local favorite, Suruth V., I was very curious about our new Japanese stars, the Sahashi brothers. They were already very fast; both were very close or even faster in their lap times. I was impressed!
Watching all the other drivers, I have to admit that the level of racing in Asia has improved a lot in the last few years. Especially in 1/10 the level is very high and racing is very close. One positive surprise was the attendance of world-class driver Surikarn, who bought a 720 to be able to attend that race. He had later an epic battle with Suruth V and Meen V for TQ and victory as well.
Besides helping other people where necessary, I was keen on racing. After some time without racing I can’t wait to go driving, after all this years I still enjoy it very much. I tried a little bit with caster (big improvement, more caster – more steering), front springs (strange: harder – more steering) and rear roll center (higher – more steering), I was quite happy! But I could not do 5 minutes, so I had to refuel twice in the 10-minute heats on Saturday.
As it turned out, the other drivers had the same problem. Beside the 3 heats I had time to chat and help with set-up, especially clutch/engine combination is still something where drivers need advice.
The last qualifier of the day was really fun, my car was flying and so was my mega ZX 21! I was Saturday’s TQ and I had the fastest lap as well. But there was one more qualifier on Sunday, but that one turned out to be slower.
Sunday afternoon saw a lot of racing, in 1/10 scale starting from the H-final (!) up to the A-main. The race started out as thriller, Surikarn took over the lead, but Suruth V. was able to keep up easily, all with Serpent 720 of course. Things went wrong, when Suruth had to retire due to engine problems, after that nobody came close to Surikarn.
My own race was very exciting! I had a fierce fight with Yuya Sahashi in the first minutes after he mad a little mistake. I made one as well, leaving the pits! It resulted in a crash, after which the engine was lean suddenly. Stef re-adjusted the engine the next pit stop, but the glow plug was already broken and after I ran out of fuel due to a slightly too rich engine I lost too much time while changing the glowplug. But I had a lot of fun anyway and was happy for the young, only 16 years old Tadahiko Sahashi, who won that race.
Sunday night ended with the banquet in the hotel where everybody stayed anyway. The first three of every final had a trophy, also the TQ’s and all A-main finalists.
We left Bangkok Monday morning, but we will be back next year, for sure, but then at least one day earlier!
My next big race will be the USA Winternats in Florida (Serpent 960 1/8 scale) mid February 2007.
Michael
Michael Salven in discussion
Michael Salven posing for pictures
Michael Salven and mechanic Stef
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