Urban Touring Series Rd3 – Report
The Urban Touring Series returned to the rooftop circuit at Urban PlaySpace this past Sunday. This round marked the halfway stage of the 5-race series, and most of the racers in the top-10 of the championship ranking list entered. Anticipation was therefore high as to who would take the win and assume the lead in the overall championship rankings. The day started off overcast, but thankfully dry. After a short open practice session, racers hit the track for the first of three rounds of qualifying. Out of the gate, it was clear that young Sean Lee meant business as he showed tremendous pace to challenge regular front-runners Dominic Quek and PY Tang. Another youngster, Koh Boon Yang, was also translating his recent practice track time to a strong showing.
Dominic, Sean, Boon Yang and PY traded the lead several times during the 5-minute run, and just when it looked like Dominic would take Q1, Sean put in a quick last lap to steal the round TQ. Dominic would take 2nd for the round, while Boon Yang was 3rd. In Q2, Dominic showed that he was up for the battle when managed to stave off Sean to take the round TQ with a faster time than in Q1. Sean had to settle for 2nd this time round, while Boon Yang once again took 3rd, with PY in 4th. The showdown was set for Q3 to determine who would be overall TQ for the day. However, mid-way through the last group’s qualifying run, a drizzle started to fall. Determining that this would not allow for fair conditions for all groups, the race director called a halt to the proceedings. While it was determined that the entire Q3 would be run again, the weather had other plans as the stop-start rain persisted. After several false starts, and with time running out, it was finally decided that Q3 would be cancelled altogether, with final qualifying results based on the single best of the 2 completed runs. This gave the TQ to Dominic by virtue of his faster time in Q2. Sean would start the finals in P2, with Sean and PY in P3 and P4 respectively.
With UTS running the bump-up lower finals, Sebastian Lee and Julien Foo would secure the bump-up into the A-main to join the top-6 direct qualifiers. A1 was a close-fought affair as anticipated. Dominic held on to the lead from the tone, with Sean in close pursuit throughout the first 4.5 minutes. Sean, on fresh tyres, had the faster car but could not find a way past Dominic who used his experience to weather the pressure. During this time, Sean came under pressure himself from PY, and in a sublime move in the short front straight, managed to execute a clean pass on Sean. A lap latter, while trying to regain P2 from PY, Sean had to go wide in the left hairpin, opening the door for Boon Yang to attempt an overtake. Unfortunately both cars came into contact while running side-by-side, with Sean coming worse off, getting stuck in the next corner dots. Dominic closed out the win in A1, with PY in 2nd and Boon Yang taking 3rd.
In A2, an unfortunate spin-out by Sean in the front-straight on the opening lap dropped him down the race order, opening the door for Boon Yang and PY to sneak past, while Sean held on to 4th. PY would eventually overtake Boon Yang to finish 2nd, with Boon Yang and Sean in 3rd and 4th respectively.
Having secured the overall win, Dominic sat out leg 3. Sean successfully defended his front row start to take the win, while Boon Yang stoutly defended against PY to finish 2nd, with PY 3rd.
Touring 17.5T Blinky final results:
1. Dominic Quek
2. PY Tang
3. Sean Lee
4. Boon Yang Koh
5. Joe Lam
6. Sebastian Lee
7. Julien Foo
8. Tapana V
The next round of the Urban Touring Series will be held on the 2nd of September.
Source: Urban Play Space [facebook.com]
