Urban Touring Series Rd10 – Report
Singapore’s Urban Touring Series reached its season finale this past weekend, with round 10 attracting one of the largest entries so far as it was once again a concurrent national championship points scoring round. The premier Touring Open class would once more be run on a Reedy race format over the best three of five legs. With Nicholas Lee participating in his first local event since making the A-main at the IFMAR Worlds in Beijing, the rest of the grid would have to step up their game to keep pace.
Racing was extremely close between Nicholas and Dominic Quek, both making the local race debuts of the 2017 editions of their respective platforms. After the first four legs, both were tied with two wins each, setting the stage for a showdown in leg five. Nicholas and Dominic, starting in the second fow of the grid, both made a clean start, overtaking the pole sitter in lap one. Dominic trailed in the early stages as Nicholas maintained his advantage from the start. At the two minute mark, Dominic made a decisive move on Nicholas at the end of the main straight to secure the lead, which he would keep to the end. With this win, Dominic took the overall win for the day, with Nicholas in second, and YS Heng finishing third.
Touring Open final results:
1. Dominic Quek – Xray
2. Nicholas Lee – Yokomo
3. YS Heng – Yokomo
4. Allister Lim – Xray
5. Hasron Robana – Xray
6. Eugene Goh – Yokomo
7. Chee Lip Keong – Yokomo
8. Wong Ethan – ARC
9. Colin Tong – Xray
10.Daryl Thong – Xray
Touring Open overall top 5:
1. Esmail Apandi – Destiny
2. Dominic Quek – Xray
3. Eugene Goh – Yokomo
4. Hasron Robana – Xray
5. Allister Lim – Xray
The 17.5T Non-Boost class attracted some first-time entries, including Nicholas Lee, Esmail Apandi and Team Infinity’s Kenji Taira and Jessie Davies. Nicholas would secure the TQ at the end of the three rounds of qualifying. Racing without any practice whatsoever, Jessie improved on every run and made the A-main courtesy of a bump-up win in the B-main. In the finals, Nicholas faced the twin challenge from Esmail Apandi and Ng Wei Jian. However, Nicholas was not to be denied and secured the overall win after the first two legs.
17.5T Non-Boost final results:
1. Nicholas Lee – Yokomo
2. Esmail Apandi – Xray
3. Wei Jian Ng – Tamiya
4. Jessie Davis – Xray
5. Leonard Sim – Awesomatix
6. Alvin Koh – Tamiya
7. Wei Quan Ng – Tamiya
8. Hasron Robana – Tamiya
17.5T Non-Boost overall top 5:
1. Wei Quan Ng – Tamiya
2. Tony Neo – Awesomatix
3. Hasron Robana – Tamiya
4. HJ Quek – XRAY T4
5. Bobby Chan – Tamiya
In the Formula class the pole position was secured by Nicholas Lee on the last lap in an exciting qualifying shootout. In the finals however, it was Dominic Quek who would dominate. Winning the first two legs, Dominic took his second win for the day. Daryl Thong finished second with Allister Lim third.
Formula final results:
1. Dominic Quek – Xray
2. Daryl Thong – Capricorn
3. Allister Lim – Xray
4. Edgardo – Roche
5. Charles Lim – Xray
6. Nicholas Lee – Yokomo
7. Ah Moy – Xray
8. Smith Kek – Capricorn
9. Kenji Taira – Xray
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]