Jody Long wins Urban Astro Buggy Champs Rd4
Racing action returned to the Singapore-based Urban PlaySpace astroturf buggy track this past weekend with round 4 of the Astro Buggy Champs. Overnight storms saw racers greeted by a very wet track. However, the quick-dry surface meant that the track was fully raceable after just a short delay to the race programme. The day’s racing action would be in the 2WD class only, with the 4WD event rescheduled to another day. Qualifying was as usual super close on this difficult circuit. Racers were having trouble making mistake-free runs. Taking Q1 was Don Cheo, with young gun Sean Lee in 2nd. Fazly Ibrahim would come back to as the drier track yielded its first 19-lap run, while Jody Long recovered from a bad Q1 to take 2nd for the round. TQ would be determined in Q3, and it was Jody who finally TQ-ed a round of qualifying, with another 19-lapper, while Fazly finished 2nd. With both Jody and Fazly tied on overall points, it was Fazly who secured the overall TQ on the tiebreak.
First finals action of the day came in the form of the race to bump-up two racers to the A-main. After an incident filled race, it was Steven Ong and TS Bay who secured the coveted spots in the A-Main.
In A-Main leg 1, the difficult track took its first bite of pole-position sitter Fazly, when he bobbled at the double-double section, losing the lead to Jody. Another mistake, and Fazly drop down the field, with TS Bay moving up to 2nd. With some consistent driving, Fazly was able to catch back up to the leader Jody. A mistake by Jody a short while later however gave the lead back to Fazly. The 2 leaders traded the lead several times until Fazly broke at the big jump. Don Cheo finished 2nd, while Sean was 3rd. On to A-main leg 2 and the much anticipated battle between Fazly and Jody. Despite a turn-1 spin which saw Fazly lose the lead to Jody, another incident filled race allowed Fazly to climb back up the order to challenge Jody. Sean Lee took the lead at one point during the race, but lost it when he made a mistake at the big jump. In a drag race to the finish line, Jody would just pip Fazly for the win and the overall victory. In A-main leg 3, Fazly was finally able to convert his TQ into a win over Jody. Despite a 7-seconds lead at one point, Jody’s wheels-to-the-sky mistake at the big jump gave the lead back to Fazly, who held on for the win.
Final results:
1. Jody Long – Xray
2. Fazly Ibrahim – PR Racing
3. Don Cheo – Hobao
4. Sean Lee – Tamiya
5. Steven Ong – Hobao
6. TS Bay – Yokomo
Source: Urban PlaySpace [facebook.com]
