every week is a small event for our small r/c racing club here in Pattaya but this weeks event was special as we honored our racing points champion, Olaf and loyalty award winners, Ian & Doug. Joom whipped up some spring rolls for the occasion and everyone appreciated the excuse to enjoy free draft beer but only after our first race of Season 3. since Robby is still visiting us, it wasn’t hard to guess who would prevail in this contest. he was clinical in practice and preparation and it showed as he sailed to victory, the closest competitor being me and i trailed by 15 laps! the wide lanes and multiple corners present opportunities to reduce lap times and provide passing lanes that kept the 30-minute final interesting despite the major gaps in the final lap totals. Olaf performed well with his R8 placing 3rd and Daam participated to grab 4th place. Ian wrecked his DBR9 but was able to best Hugh who placed 6th and Doug drove his Reventon, wrapping up the field in 7th place. the points race is now underway with six competition-packed months lying ahead of us to decide who will hold the awards at the end of Season 3. thanks to all members who participate throughout the season, local and abroad.. nanotrax is only special because of you!
Season 3, Round 1 @ F1R – July 4, 2010
Main A Final (30 Minutes, F1R-ZigZag, CCW)
1 -Robby / ENZO Ferrari (183 Laps | 9.87 Avg. Lap | 47/8.91 Fast Lap) +20pts
2 -Qon / Mazda 787b (166 Laps | 10.92 Avg. Lap | 93/8.90 Fast Lap)
3 -Olaf / Audi R8 (159 Laps | 11.4 Avg. Lap | 26/9.58 Fast Lap) +11pts
4 -Daam / Porsche Carrera GT (135 Laps | 13.34 Avg. Lap | 26/11.58 Fast Lap)
5 -Ian / Aston Martin Racing DBR9 (129 Laps | 14.01 Avg. Lap | 30/9.93 Fast Lap) +6pts
6 -Hugh / Mazda 787b (124 Laps | 14.61 Avg. Lap | 13/11.31 Fast Lap) +5pts
7 -Doug / Lamborghini Reventon (101 Laps | 18.5 Avg. Lap | 18/11.61 Fast Lap) +5pts
TQ = Robby / ENZO Ferrari – 8.86secs
just as i was thinking traffic thru our shop was slower than Iceland lava flows, we’re hit on Sunday with a pleasant breeze of new & old members, new & old visitors, F1 racing and a club race with enough participants to complain about the traffic on F1R. Boris and his Uncle Tony from Holland joined us recently and made their first appearance in a club race. Olaf, Ian and even the mysterious Marc returned along with Hugh with IPad in hand. BKK Will stopped by to enjoy some of my wife Joom‘s wonderful cooking and take a short spin in a rental before heading back to Bangkok in his chauffeured limousine (well, its a pathfinder driven by a very patient Thai dude… but, its quite luxurious). after a few practice laps and qualifying, the final began at ~6:25pm. though i was top qualifier, it goes to show the fastest driver isn’t always the winning driver. for a while, there was a battle brewing for 3rd place but Marc was out of practice and Ian took command to round out the top 3. this is the first official club race of May and i’m sure it’ll only get more competitive.
Club Race Results for May 9, 2010 (Week 19)
Main A Final (30 Mins):
1– Olaf / Audi R8 (155 Laps) +20
2– Q’on / Ferrari F40 (151 Laps)
3– Ian / Aston Martin Racing DBR9 (133 Laps) +11
4– Marc / Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 (128 Laps) +8
5– Hugh / Mazda 787b (102 Laps) +6
6– Boris / ENZO Ferrari (96 Laps) +5
7– Tony / Audi R8 (72 Laps) +5
— Top Qualifier = Q’on / Ferrari F40 (9.47secs)
NanoTrax DCP Standings
Olaf = 186 pts
Marlowe = 143 pts
Vincent = 134 pts
Ian = 117 pts
Dylan = 92 pts
Erwin = 44 pts
Marc = 18 pts
Brian = 15 pts
Calvin = 11 pts
Hugh = 10 pts
Doug = 10 pts
Boris = 5 pts
Tony = 5 pts
Johnny = 5 pts
sorry i’ve been ‘missing in action’ for over a week but i have good reason(s) and i’ll enhance your life by listing them here: 1) my laptop blanked out on me. most of my blog posts and general day to day ‘stuff’ is done from my portable and everything that normally happens during the day on a computer pretty much ran into a brick wall at that moment. 2) Songkran. if you’re not familiar with Thai holidays, this is one of the biggest and longest with celebrations and vacations lasting nearly 9 days. many local ‘farang’ (foreigners living in Thailand) find a way to get away from Pattaya as it turns into a virtual mine field of places to get soaked from giddy revelers who stand streetside waiting to drench any oncoming vehicle including unwary motorcyclists (which most of us are). so, its been pretty quiet in the shop with little ‘new’ traffic and only a few regulars stopping in to chat.
there is good news though: we got our first Thai adult member! his name is Tic and he’s from Bangkok. granted, he grew up in the USA and spent a few years working in Singapore before re-settling in Thailand but… hey, its a start! we’ve heard NanoTrax is considered ‘high-so’ (aka high society, upper-class, expensive, etc) so the average Thai doesn’t feel comfortable even walking into the shop let alone joining as a member. i’m not sure why though. i do speak Thai, Joom is Thai and we welcome everyone equally, but we just haven’t figured out how to get more Thais to come in, participate, join and support the shop. anyhoo… Rome wasn’t built in a day. we also had a visitor from Germany who races Mini Z at home. his name is Willy and he brought several of his cars but was disappointed because our layout this season is a bit too small. he seems to think dNano are a bit small for him but perhaps we can convince him to get a rental and join us for a club race when everyone gets back in town?
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speaking of club races… this week’s F1 Sunday was quiet and, as i’ve said, all our members have either fled Pattaya, are stuck in Europe due to the volcano eruption or just went home for a few months to work and save some money to come back. no race report, no pretty girls, just me and my new red Ferrari F40. i’ve been running with the yellow body but figured a Ferrari isn’t a Ferrari unless it wears red (sometimes). i’m considering replacing my aluminum with the new X-Power Racing Wheels for the next race – lighter is faster, faster is better! as usual, if you need to contact me just drop an e-mail to qon@nanotrax.net, its always great to know you’re reading – l8r!
as we get deeper into the Formula One Racing Season, our lounge is slowly becoming a known venue to watch the Grand Prix for racing fans in Pattaya. last sunday, we opened early for the Australian Grand Prix and welcomed three visitors from Italy. not only did they come in to watch the race, but one of them brought a few samples from his personal car model collection. our club members joined them for an exciting race and later, had an exciting race of our own on F1R ‘Strata’. as stated in my race report, it was a little messy but that was expected on this new layout. we’ll be competing again on a consecutive weekend of F1 racing action for the Malaysian Grand Prix this sunday so if you’re in the area and wish to watch with us on 3 big screen monitors in our lounge, please stop by or call for more information (phone number, address and map are just to the left on the main page of this blog).
Birthdays!
Marlowe had his birthday on sunday (March 28) and Joom celebrated hers on Tuesday (March 30). tears and ice cream cake flowed for 2 days ruining any efforts to stick to a weight loss program. everyone had a great time on both days and we also discovered that eating ice cream followed up by cold beer is a perfectly acceptable thing to do once a year. Doug came thru for his first club race on that sunday but had to run out quickly so he wasn’t able to fully participate. he’s been in this week working on his Lamborghini Gallardo custom paint job and its turned out very well. all black, slick and tricked out with all the trimmings… i think he’ll put this one into competition this weekend instead of the ‘Z’ cuz win or lose, he’ll still look good!
Thai New Year
today is the final day to get free shipping at the nanotrax online shop so hop over there for more info. the shop will also get a backend software upgrade in the next few days so if you see the site behaving strangely, no worries, we’ll have all the dust cleared by April 5. the offline shop (in Pattaya) will be officially closed from April 15-18 for the Songkran Holiday but we’ll be around so if you need to stop by, just call in advance. as usual, please send all questions & comments to qon@nanotrax.net and i’ll get back with ya ASAP.
