Azri Amri wins Malayisan Nationals Rd1
Its the new year and its the beginning of the Malaysian National Championship (MNC) held in a new venue in Ipoh at the Galaticos Arena RC Track. This being a new venue it attracted more than 30 racers in the Pro Stock class alone and almost 70 racers in all classes. 2012 is also the first year that GFT tires are used as a control tire to make the race more interesting while more economical for racers as GFT is a Malaysian brand name.
With the weather looking very good today, sun shining brightly upon us, the first round of qualifying proved to be a real test for all drivers as this will be when the true pace of all drivers be revealed. It is again Azri Amri of Team ORCA/Yokomo who got the better of Michael Lo to finish 1st with 17 laps 5:04.013 with the fastest lap of 17.429sec. While Michael Lo finished 2nd with 17 laps 5:05.639 he was able to achieve the fastest lap of the race at 17.376sec. Both Azri Amri and Michael Lo were using the soon to be launched ORCA VX ESC for the first time in Malaysia. Norazam was third with 17 laps 5:13.325 with the fastest lap of 17.814sec. 3rd to 5th were separated by 0.4 seconds.
In round 2 of the qualifying, things did not look too different from round 1, where Azri Amri ran away with the fastest time of all with Michael Lo following close behind. Coming in 3rd was M Shah from Ipoh, but it proved that round 2 of the qualifying would be a slower run for all drivers, Azri Amri remained in the preliminary TQ position.
Round 3, the final round of qualifying is coming and racers who are waiting to surpass Azri Amri has the only chance now to do so. Azri Amri proving he is going to keep his TQ position made a superb run to secure his TQ spot with 17 laps 5:03.746 bettering his initial TQ run by 0.25 sec for the 5min run, showing great consistency and pace, while behind him is Michael Lo again and M Shah doing a last minute run to achieve the overall 3rd fasted run of the day to finish 17 laps 5:09.385 with the fastest lap of 17.762sec, being the only one other than Azri Amri and Michael Lo to be able to break below 17.8sec single lap time.
The A-Main grid is set:
1. Azri Amri – 17laps 5:03.746 (17.429sec) – Team Yokomo/ORCA Asia
2. Michael Lo – 17laps 5:05.639 (17.376sec) – Team ORCA Asia/Xray
3. M Shah – 17laps 5:09.335 (17.762sec) – Team Serpent/Dualsky
4. Norazam – 17laps 5:13.325 (17.814sec) – Team Tamiya/Dualsky
5. Aseng – 17laps 5:13.661 (17.966sec) – Xray/Dualsky
6. Nik Ejan – 17laps 5:14.061 (18.052sec) – Team Xray/HobbyWing
7. Nilai Chong – 17laps 5:14.091 (18.107sec) – Team Yokomo/Dualsky
8. Ong CheeYong – 17laps 5:14.237 (17.829sec) – Team Tamiya/Orion
9. Kamarul – 17laps 5:15.013 (17.905sec) – Xray
10.William Tiong – 17laps 5:18.096 (18.260sec) – Xray
The most exciting moment is upon all racers heading into the 1st leg of the A Main finals. At the tone, Azri Amri got off to a clean start, but Michael Lo was not as fortunate as he fumbled and dropped to sixth, while M Shah got to second behind all the mayhem with Norazam following in 3rd. But Michael Lo had more speed in hand than his rivals and managed to get back to 2nd place as M Shah made a rare mistake at the 4th minute to allow Michael Lo to get pass him as Norazam and the others tangled to allow Michael Lo to make a fairly easy pass. In the end the results was like the qualifying, with Azri Amri taking the win with the fastest lap of leg 1 at 17.377sec, and Michael Lo 2nd and M Shah 3rd.
2nd leg of the finals was on the way, again it was Azri Amri that made the clean start, but Michael Lo again failed to capitalize on the 2nd starting position and got fumbled down to 4th this time. This time it was Norazam that followed behind Azri Amri. Michael Lo again mamaged to get by M Shah to get to 3rd, but it was a tangle between Azri Amri and Norazam that allowed Michael Lo to take the lead. Michael Lo was enjoying a healthy lead as Azri Amri battled furiously with Norazam to try to regain 2nd. Try as Azri Amri might, it proved Norazam was a difficult man to pass as he managed to counter all the attacks that Azri Amri mounted and it was unfortunate that both Azri Amri and Norazam got tangled in more than 1 instances, which allowed Michael Lo to continue to drive to the lead, where Azri finally managed to pass Norazam to achieve 2nd. At the end it was Michael Lo with the win in Leg 2, Azri Amri 2nd and Norazam 3rd.
It was unfortunate that the weather did not hold up and the 3rd leg of final was not able to be run as scheduled. In the end the results are as follows:
A Main Final Result:
1. Azri Amri – Team Yokomo/ORCA Asia
2. Michael Lo – Team ORCA Asia/Xray
3. M Shah – Team Serpent/Dualsky
4. Norazam – Team Tamiya/Dualsky
5. Nik Ejan – Team Xray/Hobbywing
6. Aseng – Xray/Dualsky
7. Nilai Chong – Team Yokomo/Dualsky
8. Kamarul – Xray
9. William Tiong – Xray
10.Ong CheeYong – Team Tamiya/Orion
Super Stock 13.5T Boosted A-Main
1. Shahrin – Team Yokomo/ ORCA
2. Wong KokWai(TQ) – Team Xray/ORCA
3. Michael Lo – Team ORCA Asia/Schumacher
4. Yap ChewKong – Team Yokomo/Dualsky
5. Suah – Team Xray/ORCA
6. Azhar – Team Yokomo/ORCA
7. Max Teo – Schumacher/ORCA
8. Ammar Dungun – Yokomo
9. Leonard Kee – Team Tamiya/Orion
10.Ajak – Yokomo
Stock Class 17.5T Non-Boosted A-Main
1. Micheal Lim (TQ) – Team Sakura/Viper
2. Azri
3. David Yap – Yokomo
4. Huzaiba – Team AE
5. Chris Oh – Xray/ORCA
6. Nazli Ali – Yokomo
7. Wan – AE
8. Hafis Navy – Tamiya
9. Ah Yew – Yokomo
10.Esham – Serpent
Report by Michael Lo.
