Day 2 - 18th May 2006

Arrived at the track at around 9am. It was drizzling and there was also a very strong gust. Throughout the day, it was a drizzle, wind, sun, wind cycle. Some drivers manage some practice time, but in general, it was a wet day. Bertin & Rossi was in the paddock. Mr Toshiyuki Iwamoto of the Japanese Team Active guys was by far the fastest. It was overheard from the paddock that Bertin estimates that he can do a 13.8s - as fast as the 8th scale.

Tanaka did had any track time, he was experiencing quite a bit of radio problems. His Kawahara teammate was spotted trotting up and down the track with Tanaka-san's car in hand to check his radio range.

Leigh Dytor of Oz didn't had much track time too. He couldn't make a lap and had a minor runoff in the middle of the track. I couldn't remember his name, but this Korean driver was said to have came in 2nd in the Mugen Cup last week in Korea. He was seen helping out the Philipine team; tuning their Rossi Plus engines. I heard him advising the team to remove the head button after every run and clean it to a shine. And the plug that came in the box is only meant for running in, not for racing. Tay and I watch this guy tune up the Rossi Plus, it is all in his head, he basically tune the engine with his ears. Nice fella, and all he asked for was a cigarette.

The 8 member Kawahara team didn't do much track time too. It seems that they came straight after the Mugen Cup in Korea and they already had enough earlier in the week. But they seem very passionate about racing, hanging around the paddock and ocassionally mingling around. They probably had a language problem like most other japanese drivers I've met.

Tay came in with the kit of the new G4 and was building it up at the track. But he seem intend on running his original car. He told me that the Titan Mazada 6 body was very cheap, so he got one to try out, but I don't think he got enough track time to tell any difference.

Jones (Race Director) confirmed that the typhoon has moved off and out of Taiwan's way. We are all crossing our fingers for good weather from tomorrow. But Jones already have backup plans

Okay, so much for Day 2, we should start racing tomorrow. Okay, I didn't forget about the pictures, here's a few:

Oops... it didn't quite work, the picture size was too big, I'll need some time to resize them, so hang in there.

Okay, got one up, this is a very short video of Iwamoto-san's Team Active 10th scale coming down the straight and turning at the 90 degree left corner into the mini S straight on the left:



I shot this one at the mid level of the driver stand, Adrien Bertin was still pushing the track, but you get one lap of him, I lost him down the straight, but manage to catch him back after the left 90 degree turn into the mini S:



Okay, here's the link to the pictures:

CLICK HERE

Now, this would be the final one for today, this is a video taken, standing in the centre of the driver stand, starting off from the pit lane. So this is as close as you could get to being here:

Okay, I lied, I just couldn't let you miss this one. This should show you how strong the wind is. You see, trouble is, wind is invisible. One of the paddock tents almost flew off. In fact, Tay told me this had happen at the Raffles Marina Track:



Okay, this had got to be the final one. This is phlim signning off.