[Mikko Nassi]

The AKOC Thailand event was held last weekend.

Organisers should be sending the full results soon, I only have the Seniors. Have a look at some pictures from Tachapan Vijittranon and Freddy Lawan.

Senior 125 Open Top 10:
1. Jean Philipe Guignet 18:18.129
2. Senna Sulaiman Noor 18:19.480
3. Kittitat Vongpray 18:24.637
4. Natasha Seatter 18:25.699
5. Aldi Rizki Agustian 18:26.060
6. Christian Silvano 18:30.768
7. Sean Gelael 18:32.813
8. Tatsura Youngyuen 18:36.805
9. Weiron Tan 18:36.994
10.Cameron Storah 18:39.442

Haven't heard much from the drivers. Aldi was pleased with his 5th place. Ryan Mumford's run was ruined by a fouled plug in the final. And James Pull (below) was 4th in the cadets.


James Pull looking... worried?


Veteran drivers on the Podium. Gary Mumford, Freddy Lawan, and Jukka Koivistionen.


Intrepid Drivers

[Aldi Rizky]

Nice One Mate... see you guys in Macau for the final round!!!

[JohnKing6]

James was very happy with his 4th place. His recent change of team meant that we went to Bangkok with very little time to prepare. He was fast right from the beginning but then we hit a brick wall on performance which held him back in qualifying and the heats. But he drove really good races in the heats to get himself in a better position for the pre-final and final. In the final the kart was fast and he quickly got up to 4th place. He then got stuck behind one of the local drivers who was really excellent at defending his position. But, all things considered, 4th was OK and it gives him a (fairly slim) chance of getting back the championship lead from Max in Macau.

A couple of controversial opinions:

It was my 1st visit to an AKOC race for a while and I was amazed by the amount of money spent by some of the teams in proportion to the importance of the series - it doesn't lead anywhere and isn't really any more competitive than some of the local series. At least 5 or 6 teams had European mechanics - one seemed to have ONLY European mechanics. I can understand the situation where a driver is already doing some European races and the team brings their regular European mechanic over but it does seem curious value to hire European mechanics - and their engines - for a race like this. Surely sending the driver (and our local mechanics) to Europe would be far better value?

There was also some pretty dubious team tactics. With my history with the Axle drivers, I obviously have no great loyalty to them but I did feel sorry for Ron over the weekend - he was seriously screwed - to the point where the organisers should, and could, have intervened.

[Mikko Nassi]

James was very happy with his 4th place. But, all things considered, 4th was OK and it gives him a (fairly slim) chance of getting back the championship lead from Max in Macau.

Sounds like a good weekend for the cadets.

It was my 1st visit to an AKOC race for a while and I was amazed by the amount of money spent by some of the teams in proportion to the importance of the series - it doesn't lead anywhere and isn't really any more competitive than some of the local series. At least 5 or 6 teams had European mechanics - one seemed to have ONLY European mechanics.

It does seem a bit excessive for the level of competition and prizes on offer in the championship. The main issue with the Asian championships (talking Rotax and AKOC) is that it isn't easy or cheap traveling and transporting equipment. Which is why after just 3 rounds of AKOC (haven't seen the full results after rd4 yet) the amount of drivers that have done all events is as below:

Senior Open: 10
Mini ROK: 6
Junior Open: 5
Veterans: 1
Rotax Senior: 0
ROK Senior: 0
ROK Junior: 0

The numbers haven't been any better in the Rotax Asia Challenge either. Usually only about 4 drivers in Seniors/Juniors having done all rounds at the end of the season with MicroMax the most - usually only the drivers that did good in round 1 go to round 2 etc. Then again if the 4 drivers that do all the rounds are really good then it is still a challenging championship - but still no better than a national championship with large fields.

For 2011 all Rotax Asia rounds will be in Malaysia in an attempt to bring up the numbers. Overseas competitors can leave karts in Malaysia for the entire duration - so far it seems that this has brought up the interest level. The championship and numbers are guaranteed to be good because you will always have the local Malaysian drivers and the Asian competitors on top of that. The problem with it is that of course it doesn't feel like a regional championship with all events held in one country - the major advantage is that it will be a proper championship in the sense that the competition will be tough with a lot of drivers doing all the rounds in each category. But this thread isn't about Rotax...

There was also some pretty dubious team tactics.

Someone's teammate going out of his way to block another driver's progress? Just guessing here because I have no idea what was actually going on.

[Mikko Nassi]

Read more about James' race in his Press Release.

[JohnKing6]

Someone's teammate going out of his way to block another driver's progress? Just guessing here because I have no idea what was actually going on.

It was that and then some.... But I'll see if anyone else who was there wants to comment

[Mikko Nassi]

Championship Standings are out.

-Fewtrell is at the front of the Mini ROK with James Pull in 2nd.
-Yasuo Senna is 1st in Junior open followed by Andersen Martono.
-in Seniors Sean Gelael is 20 points ahead of Ron Tan who is almost 40 ahead of Senna SN.
-Gary Mumford is dominating the Veteran category