> News

Futaba OS Jakarta Open report from Peter Widjaja (27/05/2008)

By:: Laurant
Linked to:: Serpent 720 08 1/10th scale 200mm, Serpent 960 08 1/8 scale 4WD, Serpent 966 1/8 scale 4WD EVO, Serpent 720 -09 1/10th scale 200mm, Serpent 966 -TE 1/8 scale 4WD, Serpent 966 -TE v2 1/8 scale 4WD

2008 was the first time for Futaba OS Cup to cater for both 1:8 and 1:10 classes, similar to DTM Cup which has been held since 2005. Many new faces were seen participating in the Indonesian race some travelling from Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Weather was good all weekend and traction was up.

Team Serpent Indonesia did well in both classes, taking the win and runner up places in 1:8, and podium finishes in 1:10. Teddy Syach and 10-year-old SDD teammate, Arya Rido, put down great shows. Syach, who is a leading movie star, had film shooting schedule conflict but he was able to film at night and race during the day but over the weekend this meant he only slept for just over 3 hours!!!

1:10
The first day of qualifying saw Syach struggle to manage 5-minutes without refeulling. Not much extra time (and energy, perhaps) to play around, he decided to maintain smooth driving style. Unfortunately, it did not go as he wanted in all 3 qualfying runs on the first day. He always ran out of fuel but despite this he still had the pace to manage to get into a top ten position.

On the other hand, young Arya Rido and his mechanic went with different strategy. He did refuel on the first run and also manage to put himself on the top ten spot. The 2nd and 3rd rounds was rather experimental as he tried different engine shimming. At the end, the engine did manage to run 5 full minutes without refeulling, laptimes improve only a little bit due to traffic and safe driving.

The next day, last qualifying round. Syach, on the way from his shooting location, came just right after race organizer making announcement to start warming up the car. His mechanic fitted a different engine on their way to the track. Yes, installing engine inside a moving passenger car. Unfortunately the engine was just a little rich in the morning and, once again, ran out of fuel 3 seconds before the finish.

In the final, Syach started from 5th and Arya Ridho from 6th. Heavy traffic on the start puts Syach back to last position. His S720 was running in perfect balance and his driving is very smooth allowing him to work his way up tp third position just before the first refuelling. Then drama began, his engine stalled in the middle of the track and put him 2 laps down from the leader. Trying to regain the loss ofd laps, Syach was 1 lap down after 5th pit stop, but his luck ran out again. The engine stall for the second time and put him almost 4 laps from the leader. Syach finish 2nd at the end of the race with only 2 laps gap from the winner, Erwin Luhur. Arya Ridho, drove steadily and maintained 3rd position throughout the race. Finishing in style, with a very bald rear tires.

1:10 A Final Result
1.(1) Erwin Luhur/151/45:01.835
2.(5) Teddy Syach/149/45:16.209 (Serpent 720/Mega)
3.(6) Arya Ridho/147/45:04.559 (Serpent 720/Mega)
4.(8) Usman Halim/146/45:00.722
5.(7) Fayakhun Adriadi/145/45:15.029
6.(10)Linardi/144/45:02.170
7.(4) Kris Heriana/143/45:20.550
8.(3) Danny Iswahyudi/121/42:15.893
9.(9) Agung Dorojatun/105/42:01.874
10.(2)Sadikin/103/32:57.923

1:8
Biggest concern for everyone was still fuel mileage. With limited engine stock and supply, most of us were trying to save our engine life. We do pit stop in qualifying, thus no change for TQ. Serpent Driver Development member Arya Ridho put himself in a very respectable 2nd on the grid for the final. TQ spot went to another young talent, 15-year-old Ignatius Ryan. Overall the Team Serpent performance in qualifying was very strong as we managed to put the most cars in the final.

Start of final went smoothly. A little tangle up on the back which put Syach and Widjaja at the tail of the field for the first couple minutes. Sadikin went out early due to some glitch while Syach fought his way back up the order. He got caught up in small incident which popped off the steering linkage but quick work by his mechanic had him back in the race swiftly.

At this time, Arya Ridho kept exchanging position with Ryan while Syach was lapping hard behind, putting down fastest lap time of 15.197 on lap 69. On lap 128, Syach took over the lead from where he cruised to the finish line taking his Mega powered 960 to the victory. Following him home was Arya who recoreded the 2nd fastest lap of the race with a 15.390.

1:8 A Final Result
1.(6) Teddy Syach/167/45:07.834 (Serpent 960/Mega)
2.(2) Arya Ridho/166/45:05.186 (Serpent 960/Mega)
3.(1) Ignatius Ryan/164/45:04.568
4.(3) Ricardo/161/43:39.116
5.(5) Tons/156/45:07.277
6.(8) Peter Widjaja/154/45:03.827 (Serpent 960/Mega)
7.(4) Tan Wee Chor/131/37:19.795 (Serpent 960)
8.(10)Hendry/66/20:46.100
9.(7) Sadikin/16/4:10.909 (Serpent 960/Mega)
10.(9)Niko Cheng/0/---

Congratulations to all the winners and to the organisers, A! Enterprise, for putting on a great event. We are looking forward for the 2009 Futaba OS Jakarta Open.

Thank you to Serpent Motorsport for their continued team support.

Until we race again,

Peter Widjaja

The 1:10 A Finalists line up

Arya Ridho's 720 which took him to a podium finish

Teddy Syach's winning 960/Mega combination

Young ace Arya Ridho busy at work