Bowie Ginting wins opening Indonesian National

The first Indonesian 1/8th scale national championship race was held in JITC Senayan circuit, Jakarta last weekend. It was perfect sunny weather for race with only a little rain in the semi finals. The race system was 5 x 3 minutes qualifying with the top 5 drivers going directly into the Grand final, while the rest of the grid qualified through a 20 minute Semi Final. It was Bowie Ginting who took the TQ spot with his Mugen MRX5, followed by Senior driver, Toni Kundjung and 2010 National champion, Ricardo Carnadi. Hendry and Sani Nugroho completed the top 5.

Qualifying Result:
1. Bowie Ginting – 18 laps – 5.03.760
2. Toni Kundjung – 18 laps – 5.16.159
3. Ricardo Carnadi – 18 laps – 5.18.863
4. Hendry – 18 laps – 5.19.404
5. Sani Nugroho – 17 laps – 5.02.388

The Semi Final saw drivers battle it out for 20 minutes to gain the final spots in the main final. The race ended on 18 minutes due to a little rain and with the final 75% done, the result was called. Handoyo took the win followed by Akok, Adi Riyadi, Teguh Santoso and Anthony, all moving to the Grand Final. In the final Bowie Ginting held his 1st place from the start of the race, while Toni Kundjung had a bad start and dropped down to last place. It was great duel for 2nd place between Hendry and Ricardo early in the race but after some minutes ran into problems with Hendry retiring from the race at 16 minutes. Toni Kundjung also flamed out on 14 minutes. Sani Nugroho took advantage of the situation to jump to 2nd place. At 25 minutes most drivers stopped for new tires, with Ricardo getting a problem after his tire stop and dropped back to 4th behind Handoyo. At the end of the race, Bowie Ginting won his first national series race followed by Sani Nugroho, 7 laps back. Handoyo finished 3rd, with Ricardo and Teguh Santoso completing the top 5.

Final Result:
1. (1) Bowie Ginting – 153 laps – 45.05.468 (Mugen/Novarossi)
2. (5) Sani Nugroho – 146 laps – 45.10.986 (Kyosho/Max)
3. (6) Handoyo – 139 laps – 45.09.697 (Mugen/JP)
4. (3) Ricardo – 138 laps – 45.00.785 (Mugen/Novarossi)
5. (9) Teguh – 136 laps – 45.10.073 (Mugen/Novarossi)
6. (7) Akok – 93 laps – 28.43.344 (Mugen/JP)
7. (4) Hendry – 57 laps – 16.52.727 (Mugen-Collari)
8. (2) Tons – 50 laps – 14.42.787 (Mugen-Sirio)
9. (8) Adi Riyadi – 19 laps – 6.37.434 (Shepherd- JP GiMar)
10. (10) Anthony – DNS – (Mugen-Novarossi)

Thanks to Bowie Ginting for the report.