[sprocket]

Calvin Wong, only Malaysian to qualify for final, finished ninth and at one point made it up to 7th. Not bad considering he started from 15th. Pity the rest of the Malaysian drivers and Cambodian Ryan Ritchie did not make it to the final.

[Aaron]

http://www.kart-data.com/LT07/RGF/

full results there

[Mikko Nassi]

Calvin drove good in the final being the fastest driver on track several laps in a row and was in 7th with 2 to go but dropped back a few.

Ryan ritchie didn't bend his chassis - he destroyed it

At Dubai airport heading back now... more when back in KL... including pics of Ryan's kart.

[sprocket]

Hope he is ok though!

[Mikko Nassi]

When New:


After-Ritchie:

[sprocket]

1 few days old chassis destroyed. The boy is ok? Hope he is not hurt.

[Mikko Nassi]

A bit of pain in his right foot and that I believe is ok by now. His father's wallet might not have recovered yet though .

He wasn't even close to being the only one with a lot of damage .

A fair few bent chassis during the weekend, and a lot of incidents like this where a sudden change in front-end alignment occured:

[Aaron]

[quote="Mikko Nassi"]His father's wallet might not have recovered yet though .
quote]

are the drivers responsible for paying any damages?

[Jules]

yes, saw more badly damaged karts than this......there's one shot from the official webpage.....the kart looked crushed!


Mikko, how was your race? The intrepid any good? I dun like the brakes....but this was from an older ( Silverstone? )model

[Alex Ritchie]

Thanks for the concern about Ryan - he was a little beat up but he's fine now.

He went to Al Ain with his ribs 85% recovered after Saraburi and picked up a sprain on his right foot and a big bruise on his left shin after the 2nd Chance heat.

Other than Calvin I believe the Malaysians faced a steep learning curve - very, very steep in the case of the DD2 drivers. Ryan hadn't got himself and his kart fully sorted by the time qualifying came around.

A poor qualifying meant that he had to start each heat at the tail end - he managed to pick off a few places in heats 1 & 2 but got involved in other people's incidents, ran off into the desert sand and finished last but one in heat 3.

That meant starting at the back again in the 2nd Chance heat...at the end of the main straight at Al Ain, just before the braking area for Turn 1, there is a massive bump and all the karts go semi-airborne at this point. Two karts immediately ahead of him tangled and Ryan went straight into them at full chat...

This bump on the straight caused most of the damage - there were multiple pile-ups in this area for about 40% of all races there.

Damage: one frame, steering column, radiator, etc. Total cost about 1,600 Euros (ouch!)

[JohnKing6]

Other than Calvin I believe the Malaysians faced a steep learning curve - very, very steep in the case of the DD2 drivers.

here's a quick summary of how things went for the Malaysians (and "Cambodians")

Calvin - Unlucky to only finish 9th. Was up to 7th at one point in the final, tried to overtake the kart in front and got held up and dropped back to 11th. But, he was right on the pace and could easily have been very near the front
Bryan - Did well for his 1st attempt at the world finals. Like Calvin, was penalised in one heat and that dropped him well down the grid for the 2nd chance.
Afiq - good pace at times and learnt a lot, particularly about meaning of flags
Ryan - definately won the prize for the most damage done
Mikko - extremely unlucky. Had really good pace in practice / qualifying - running comfortably with Mike Simpson and Ben Cooper. But, in 1st heat had a tangle which bent a few things and never really got the pace back.
Masedenal - another one who learnt a lot. He drove well in the races but got involved in a big pile-up in one heat which meant he didn't qualfy for the 2nd chance race.
James Lee. James and I had a massive learning curve on the DD2s. James drove well in the races but his qualifying position meant he didn't get good enough results to go to the 2nd chance race.
John. I had a lot of fun and was a bit unlucky - I had my steering alignment modified by a crazy driver on the formation lap of heat 2 so really struggled in that race. For heat 3 we took a big gamble on set-up which back-fired badly. It was a big shame because I made a great start and was 17th (from 30th!) after lap 1 but once my tyres got heated up, the handling was about the same as slicks on a wet track

The starts of the DD2 races were terrifying. Sitting in 29/30 position in a 36 kart grid when you're used to being on the front row of a 10 kart grid is something different altogether. I don't think I took a breath in heat 1 until about lap 3. One of the experienced European DD2 drivers estimated we were doing about 145kph at the end of the main straight - they are really fast karts!

So, disappointing results for the team but everyone tried hard, learnt a lot and had fun.

[Jules]

John,

Thanks for great account , update and yes, most of all to know that all had fun!

145kph? that's really fast for a kart. I have hit possibly in excess of that when BT3 track ran the superkarts.....i recall the wind pressure & helmet buffeting from the high speed was a shocker the 1st few times I went round.

Btw, just an opinion and I know James Leong is reading - black team suits dun look so dashing & camera appealling.....maybe a point to improve for 2008.