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| November 26, 2005 News |
| EKN Trackside: Rotax Max Grand Finals - Day 4 |
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Friday in Malaysia dawned with a steady rain that persisted through the morning as the third official day of the Rotax Max Grand Finals looked set for the trouble. At around 10 am, persistent rain turned into torrential downpour and for a while it look like there may not be any on-track action as many parts of the circuit were under a few inches of water. Track crews went to work with push brooms and pump trucks and, surprisingly, by 1 pm the sun was out and things were looking good for the warm-up sessions to get underway at 2 pm. By race time, what had started out as a very dodgy situation had turned into a beautiful day as Chamber of Commerce weather had finally graced the island of Langkawi for the first time in four days.
With the change in schedule due to the restructuring of heats from the day before, the RM1 class was only to run a short morning warm-up and no heat races. This left the drivers and teams with an extra day off and a chance to see more of the island of Langkawi.
 | The competition was heated in Malaysia
(Photo: Ken Johnson) |
Race one on the day featured Senior Rotax groups A and B, kicking off a full slate of Senior racing. The start was very clean with only minor bumping and rubbing into turn one as Luuk Glansdrop of the Netherlands took the lead followed by Aaron Lim of Malaysia. Around lap five, Lim made a nice pass under Glansdrop in turn 16 and looked set to pull away. However, Glansdrop had other plans and retook the top spot five corners later. Lim kept the pressure on for the next lap or so before falling back about two kart-lengths. For the most part, the pack ran nose-to-tail with very little passing throughout the field until the later stages of the heat. With three laps to go (of 15), Glansdrop and Lim had pulled out about four seconds on third place. With second not in jeopardy, Lim resumed his fight for the lead and put a lot of pressure on Glansdrop, looking high and low in almost every corner. At the checkered, Glansdrop held on to take the win as the two ran nose-to-tail over the line.
The next race up was for Rotax Senior groups C and D. This time, the start was a bit more ragged and a few karts went flying into the dusty bits through the first complex of corners. After it was all said and done, Americans Wes Phillips and Stuart Marsell were in the very back on the pack with a lot of ground to make up. Wes set about his business and started methodically picking off a few positions. At mid-race, he made a smart move down the inside of Riccardo Auteri of Italy. In the very next corner, Auteri made a lunge down the inside to take the position back. On exit of that corner, Wes used better exit speed to get on the inside and gently move the Italian driver onto a more agricultural line to retake the position. All was for naught, however, as a couple laps later he went missing on the far side of the circuit. The drive of the race went to UK driver Tristam Oman, who moved from the back of the grid to take third at the checker, setting the lap record in the process. Tristam was on the RM1 podium in Lanzarote and always runs well. This was to be a particularly difficult day for him as a weight DQ in qualifying meant he was to start on the back row in every heat.
The third race of the day saw Junior groups B and D fighting it out on track at Morac Raceway. On pole was Kenneth Hildebrand of Estonia with Ben Cooper of the United Kingdom alongside. At the start, third place starting James Grunwell of Thailand fell asleep and got passed by a handful of karts going into turn one. Everything looked smooth until turn two when a big bunch up in the middle of the pack left Malaysian driver Muhammad Nabil Jan Al Jeffri with his pipe knocked off and heading to the pits for repairs. Up front, Hildebrand and Cooper ran away with the race, pulling nearly eight
seconds on the field by three laps to go in the race, On the last lap, Cooper made an awesome slide move down the inside of Hildebrand to take a lead he'd hold on to until the checkered flag. David Holland started up front and held position with most of the lead pack (except for the top two) managing to take 8th place at the flag. One interesting item of note, the weather must have changed right as the karts were going to the grid, providing much more air. It seemed as though at least 80 to 80 percent of the karts were either popping or very close to popping as they accelerated down the back stretch in this heat.
Senior Groups A and C saw a front row of Luuk Glansdrop and Senna Kallas. This race was pretty much a ‘Glansdrop runaway’ as he moved smartly into the lead on lap one and never looked back. As had happened in his first heat, Kallas failed to capitalize on a front row spot and fell back through the field to finish 24th. Further back in the field, Tristam Oman was slicing his way through traffic on his way to the front. By lap four, he was halfway through the grid when an outside pass attempt didn't go as planned and he found himself spinning through the grass. After a 360° spin, he restarted at the tail of the field and worked his way back to tenth at the checkered. Sanso took an excellent sixth while Canadian Eric Gerrits to 11th.
Senior groups B and D got underway with front row starters Aaron Lim (Malaysia) and Martin Pierce (UK) moving out to an early lead. Back in the pack, USA’s Wes Phillips got a great start to pick up six positions through the first set of twisty bits. This was not to last however and soon he had slipped back to the end of the pack. It seems like Wes has just missed the set-up a bit and was sliding all over the track. Perhaps he's at the end of his Mojos. Up front, Lim and Pierce pulled away from the field and with two laps to go held a 5.5-second lead over Joshua Hart (New Zealand) in third. With two corners to go on the penultimate lap, Pierce went into a half-spin and was caught and passed for second place He got going again and retook his rightful spot on the last lap to leave the finishing order as Arron Lim, Martin Pierce, Joshua Hart, Jan Andreasen and Ranno Kallas rounding out the top five.
Junior groups A and D had Calvin Wong of Malaysia, Ben Cooper, American James Kennedy and Lukas Jasensky of Slovakia starting in the first two rows. Kennedy didn't get the start he wanted and fell from third to fifth. On lap two, he was looking to move into fourth when second and third got together and all four karts packed up together. Unfortunately for Kennedy, he drew the short straw and as everyone got going he was still stopped trying to get the kart running again. All this left MacKenzie Johnson to capitalize and he found himself in fourth position. Cooper used this race as his private session and pulled out a strong lead which would never be challenged. On lap 10 of 15, Johnson slid wide in the middle of the course and Kazuki Hiramine (Japan) got a run on him, passing for fourth in the next corner. Two laps later, MacKenzie lost another place to Indian driver Akhil Kushlani and ended the race with a fine, but disappointing sixth. Kennedy finished 17th.
The first five laps of Junior groups B and C saw the best racing of the day as the top few positions changed almost every lap. Fourth place starting Kenneth Hildebrand eventually took the lead for good and began to pull out a slight lead over Ooi Fei Hoong (Malaysia) and James Grunwell. David Holland was holding a fine fifth place for most of the race but slipped back to seventh and was passed on the last lap to finish eighth. Canadians Christopher Boisclair and Maxime Pelletier ran clean races to finish 11th and 21st respectively.
Senior race C (groups A and D) was another strong performance by the Netherlands’ Glansdrop as he led almost the entire race to take another win. Estonian driver Ranno Kallas provided some excitement at the start to take the lead in the first turn. That was to be the high-water mark of his race as, after lap two, he started falling back through
the field to finish 14th at the end. Up front, Glansdrop was joined by Martin Pierce and Ross Jamison (China) in running away from the field to finish nine seconds in front of the fourth place battle consisting of Jan Andreason (Denmark), Dennis Gorman (UK), Ralph Odendaal (South Africa) and Tiago Ribiero (Portugal). Phillips had another frustrating race, running near the back of the pack to finish 24th.
The last race of the day was a showcase of the best talent Holland has to offer as Glansdrop and Koolen shot off from the field and had their own private battle for first. As the race unfolded, fellow journalist Nik deJong kept telling me that Senna's style was to wait until the end before pouncing on the leader. True to form, with two laps to go, Koolen made a decisive inside move on Glansdrop to take the lead and the win. This was the first good race for Senna as in his first two races he started up front only to fall way back during the race. After his second heat, it was discovered that he had his power valve in upside down and, once remedied, he was the man to beat. Florida’s Stuart Marsell started the race in 8th and ran there for most of the beginning of the race and ended up in 11th. Starting from the back once again was Great Britain's Tristam Oman. As in the previous heats he put on a demon drive to move up through the field to take 8th place at the checkered right behind Makoto Kubo of Japan.
The event organizers are still fighting trouble with their website and at this time, full results are still not available. As always, check back with EKN for further updates and look in on the Rotax Max forum for short reports throughout the day from Andy Seesemann and myself.
Ken Johnson
EKN Correspondent
The LCQs, prefinals and finals will be run tomorrow....
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