Japan’s F1RCGP comes to Shanghai again for their round 6 race. Weather in Shanghai has been on and off rain so we did not know if the race was going to be held outdoors at the Shanghai TRS-JT track or be moved indoors to RCI. Up until the day before the race, it was finally decided to be moved indoors.
Japanese driver Hironbu-San, owner of Hiro-Factory racing was the driver to beat, as he is very well known in Japan for his F1racing. Hideo Kitazawa also came over, as he is the organizer of F1RCGP. I entered three classes for this race, the F1RCGP s Scale class (21.5T Blinky), Asia Class (21.5T Boost), and GP Class (17.5 Boost).
In the Scale class, F1RCGP used our SGP1 rules for race format, which were two 20 minute qualifying (Best Lap) and then 30-minute A Main final. My qualifying strategy was to go up on the control stand, make the fastest lap, then come down and see if anyone beats it, if so, back on again to try to top it. At the end, without using up too much tires, I managed to TQ the class. In the 30 minute final, I was running second behind Hironbu with less than 3 minutes to go and then I lost power, and DNF. The problem was the control ESC, but don’t really have an answer to why it failed.
In the Asia class, Hironbu TQ’d the class and it was a real battle with him. In the first 8 minute final, I won. In the second final, I was leading but got taken out by a back marker with less than a minute left in the race, which dropped me to second. So it came down to the last final and it was close racing before Hironbu makes a mistake and I overtook the lead and kept it to win the class!
In the GP class held on the next day, I simply could not catch Hironbu-San and after the race I tried his car and it was night and day compared to mine. His setup and car felt so good and easy to drive.
On one of the nights, a bunch of us had dinner at a Chinese Shabu-Shabu restaurant; it was a lot of fun and a lot of food. It was also a farewell dinner for our friend Tim Chan, who was moving back to the US.
Overall, a fun event and for Asia class, I won with the NEW Speed Passion SP1, the car was great, easy to drive and very competitive!
