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Indoor racing in Manila (07/05/2007)

By:: Laurant

2006 EFRA Dutch GP winner Julius Kolff has travelled the world but recently the very capable r/c racer took a trip to Manila to check out an interesting indoor Nitro track which came to his attention on the internet!

Here's his account of the trip -

Hello racefans

Internet is a fantastic way to meet people. As many of you know my “real” work takes me around the world quite a bit. But until recently I never had taken the opportunity to take my RC stuff with me. When I saw a video posted by Ian on 3hobby.net about an indoor nitro track in Manila, a place that I fly to once in a while, I contacted Ian and asked him if it would be possible to come and play. Well Ian did a bit more than arrange for me to be able to practice. Within no time he, together with the owner of the track: mr J.P. Reyes, had organized a race.

The track itself is in the heart of Manila, about 45 minutes away (depending on traffic as I would find out) from the hotel I was staying at. It is located in a big complex of industrial halls, and JP told me he used to have an indoor off-road track in the same spot. The dirt however is long gone and in its place now lies a very smooth high grip asphalt surface. With barriers and curbs that can be connected in various ways to create ever new layouts. I was told if people get too fast the layout is changed so everyone starts from scratch.

I arrived Thursday morning after a 12 hour night flight. So after a few hours of sleep Ian picked me up from the hotel and took me to Dogbone hobby shop. They hooked me up with fuel and borrowed me a tire truer. Included in the package was Junkie, one of the shops mechanics who would come with us to the track and help me during practice. Once at the track I had the rest of the afternoon and evening to find a setup and learn the track. That sounds easy but I had a hard time. It’s a quick track with a very different type of grip than I am used to. After a long day of testing I was still more than half a second of the competitive laptimes…..

During the evening I worked on fixing up my car and thinking of solutions to the problems I had. I needed more steering but was already having problems with traction roll in some parts of the track. I even called Rene Cornella via skype to ask him for suggestions. In the end I decided to make the car more flexible. I removed the side stiffeners and used the stock x-brace in place of the optional aluminum one. I als set the shocks in a more upright position to try and mare the car roll less. The next day after a good nights sleep, Ian picked me up again and we were off to the track.

When we finally got there (stuck in traffic for more over an hour) the track was full of activity. I found out many had quit from work early to make it in time for practice for the evening race! I really wanted to get on the track and see if my changes had worked. And fortunately they had. Finally I was able to attack the track and push without fear of flipping over. The car was a lot more forgiving and I believe this is mostly due to the extra flex. With more drivers present the gripline was a bit wider as well and I had some really nice practice fights with JP Reyes and Ralph Lorenzo.

In the evening JP called all racers together and we started the qualifying runs. They run 10 minute qualifiers here and with a tricky track that is a challenge. But I had a decent run and put the car in second spot just after JP. Hey you need to give the host an advantage! The final was scheduled for 45 minutes. Tire wear is very low here, which is good considering we started the final on 59mm rear tires! After some warmup laps my car felt really good and we were called to the start. After a bad start I had pushed quite hard to get back up to third and I was keeping up quite well with the top 2 (JP and Ralph) until the track got the better of me. I fell victim to my own desire to catch up too quickly and made a few mistakes that dropped me back quite a bit. After about 20 minutes I was back in third but quite a long way behind the leaders. But I noticed that JP, who was in the lead at the time, had some problems and was slowing down. I at least would have a shot at second. But as we all know, as soon as you think about what might be, reality hits you. In my case a mistake in overtaking a slower car sent me into one of the steel posts under the rostrum…. Race over. In the end only 2 cars made it to the end! With JP finishing in first.

Although the final was a bit scrappy on my part, I really enjoyed the racing in Manila. All the guys there are really nice and the hospitality is awesome! Lots of thanks to Ian who showed me around and arranged everything I needed. The guys from Dogbone hobbies for setting me up with needed parts and of course JP whose hospitality was extraordinary. I am surely coming back for a rematch guys.

If you like to see the racing look here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1htzz_practice-with-julius-jp-ralph-johan

Julius Kolff

Julius Kolff with Ian from 3hobby and J.P. Reyes

Julius with local racers at the indoor track in Manila track

Julius enjoyed himself a lot in Manila!