Esmail Apandi doubles at Singapore Buggy Nats Rd2
Singapore’s 2016 Electric Buggy National Series returned to Urban PlaySpace’s astro turf track for round 2 this past weekend. A small but quality field of racers signed up to challenge themselves on the technical high-grip track. In the 2WD class, round 1 winner Esmail Apandi showed he remained the man to beat as he TQed rounds 1 and 2 of qualifying to secure the overall TQ spot, ahead of Dominic Quek in 2nd, while fast improving Eugene Goh secured the 3rd spot on the grid.
In the opening leg of the triple A-mains, Esmail was able to defend the lead to pull away to a comfortable win in front of Dominic. In leg 2, Dominic turned the tables to secure an important win and force a showdown in the final leg. With everything on the line in the last final, Esmail showed his mettle by putting in a flawless run to take the victory by a lap and with it his second win in a row.
2WD A-main result:
1. Esmail Apandi – TLR
2. Dominic Quek – Xray
3. Eugene Goh – Yokomo
4. Danial Miswan – SWorkz
5. Terence Low – SWorkz
6. Fazly – PR
In the 4WD class Dominic Quek, winner of round 1, stamped his authority to take the win in the opening qualifier. In round 2 however, he suffered a DNF due to a runaway wheel, which was an ominous sign of things to come later in the day. Jeremy Hong, despite nursing an illness, was able to secure the win in round 2 of qualifying. Believing the cause of the DNF to have been rectified, Dominic bounced back to win in convincing fashion in round 3 and secure overall TQ for the second race in a row. Jeremy would qualify second with Terence Low in third. The wheel nut “gremlins” would return to haunt TQ man Dominic in the first final, resulting in another DNF. Jeremy capitalised of the situation to take the win, with Esmail Apandi in second. In the second final, Dominic’s problem seemed to be terminal as he scored another DNF. Jeremy once again benefitted to pull away to a nice lead, while hard-charging Esmail cut through the field to give chase. With the time expired, Jeremy had the overall win in his hands as he led with the finish line in sight. However, Jeremy landed sideways in the first double jump on the home-stretch, and Esmail’s never-say-die approach was rewarded as he finished first by less than 0.3 seconds to force a 3rd leg face-off. In the final leg, Dominic started well to hold on to the lead in the initial stages of the race. As time wound down, the dreaded DNF re-visited Dominic, paving the way for Jeremy and Esmail to battle for the win. The anticipated excitement failed to materialise as Esmail made no mistakes and was able to overtake Jeremy to make it a double win for the day. Jeremy finished in second and would look back on the win that just got away. Terence Low ran consistently in all finals and pulled off his first podium for the season in 3rd.
4WD A-main result:
1. Esmail Apandi – Xray
2. Jeremy Hong – Yokomo
3. Terence Low – SWorkz
4. Danial Miswan – SWorkz
5. Ismail Saheeb – Schumacher
6. Dominic Quek – Xray
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
