GRAND PRIX AT THE KARTING MALL 2001

Date   : Saturday, June 23, 2001
Time   : 8:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Venue  : Departure Pit Lane, Kai Tak Airport,
         Kowloon City, Hong Kong
	

Typhoon Signal no. 1 marked the first Karting event in DSOBA history. Venue, Karting Mall - Kai Tak Airport Departure Hall.

Drivers : Billy Kong - guest of David Tse, Casam Li (78), David Tse (78), Fred Lui (75), Henry Ho (Hor-Lan-Dau), Patrick Hui - guest of Sydney Lam (90), Raymond Chu (78), Sylvester Lui (83), Thomas Ho (83), Tony Lam - guest of Thomas Ho, Torch Tan (Victor's wife) and Victor Tan (80).

All hell broke loose at 8:00 pm that night with Amber Rain warning with ample lightning and thunder to deter the feeble hearted from the outdoors to stay at home and twiddle their thumbs.

Surprisingly, 90% of the participants showed up. Spirits were high as each driver started reporting in from the traffic havoc in the real world. Forty five minutes past the muster time, everyone was suited up with coveralls, driving boots, gloves, balaclavas and helmet, all set to go on the practice round. 10 minutes before the event, we were shown a karting video on dos and don'ts, etiquette and penalties but most importantly, safety.

The race marshal finally called out each driver's name for an assigned kart. Everyone was checked for safety the final time with a 3-point safety belt. They even had bucket-seat liners for the skinny ones.

Practice, was a standing start from the pit lane at 3-second intervals. No mercy was the deal here as everyone had the pedal to the metal, pushing the karts to the limit and getting some butt-time. The Race Course started off with a short straight under the foot-bridge, then a wide schicane into an elbow left to the long straight, followed by another straight into a wide hairpin left, then an elbow right into a tight hairpin right immediately followed by a left short straight under the foot-bridge ending in a flat-U left then a tricky short schicane, another flat-U (right, this time), a medium straight then a tight hairpin to the home stretch. Bumps, spinouts, crashes and scuffs were kept to a minimum, everyone had road manners.

The practice laps all seemed pretty docile albeit the competitiveness generated between drivers. The results were out and there were some distance between the faster paced drivers and the easier paced drivers. Some thought that the electric karts didn't have enough juice to make the evening exciting. What they didn't know was that all the karts were remotely controlled for a 60% output on practice.

The 2nd Round went off with a standing pit lane start. The objective of which was to qualify drivers for the pole position on the pre-finals grid. The motors were remotely tuned for 100% efficiency and there was a marked improvement in lap time for everyone, which also increased the number of spinouts and crashes. The spectators gathered on the footbridge for a panoramic view of the race and they rutted for everyone to go faster. The course proved to be a challenge when going all out as the drifting, and sliding effects kicked in. There was also the occasional bump from behind into the turns and one could only just pray that the bump did not come while the kart was drifting on a free-spinning rear axel. The unlucky ones usually take a wild spin then get stuck with the kart at 90 degrees with the barricades, waiting for the next kart completing the last turn to ram smack, straight into the side. Pretty scary stuff but safe because all the karts are equipped with graphite bumpers all-round. The results were strikingly close.

The 3rd Round, being a pre-final, went off on a rolling start. Competition was fierce, speeds were up and as each driver pushed the envelope, more errors occurred coming out of turns, especially when all the drivers became more comfortable with bumper-to-bumper racing. 2 major pile-ups caused the race to be slowed remotely, lucky enough no ambulance or paramedics were necessary, unlike real karting. The race was back on in no time at 100% power.

After the 3rd round, we saw some drivers with aching muscles from the unassisted steering, but still, everyone was in good fighting spirit. The last round, the Final Round, after some debate, was to start from the grid and the pole positioning was allocated using the results from the 3rd round. The first four in pole position were: Patrick Hui
Thomas Ho
Henry Ho
Casam Li

The Final Race started with a blast, confidence level was high and all drivers were determined to make the best of the last round, be it for the trophies and prizes or the sport of it. The first crash happened on the first lap, after the 3rd straight, as Mr. Bean powered the kart at full throttle out of the hairpin and into the left barricade, a good spinout. Some got caught in the pile-up but most came through with lightning fast reaction and maneuvers and moved up the ladder. Lap 4 saw another spinout on the Left Flat-U which caused the entire race to be stopped, the race marshals rushed in to clear the crash. While all this was going on, the back-markers took the opportunity to inch closer to the leaders. At the drop of the green flag, the race was back on again. There was a lot of bumper contact throughout the race as the drivers became more aggressive. Lap 8 saw Raymond spin-out at the same Left Flat-U, except this time he ended up with the nose of the kart facing the oncoming speed freaks, not nice to be pointing in the wrong direction here. Well the first kart to reach him managed to maneuver to the right of the now stricken driver, who already had his arms waving frantically up in the air signaling a "please don't hit me, I'll buy dinner" kind of communication. The first few karts made good of the situation while the trailing pact was not so lucky. Apparently, Raymond (Fei Mau, Flying Cat) was not signaling to other drivers to slow down but was frantically flapping his wings trying to get airborne from the situation. Good Try!

There were a couple of notable performances:

David was best dressed for the occasion as he came in his professional racing gear, yellow-mellow overalls, white helmet (or was it red?), real slick driving gloves and so on. He captured the day record of the track with a 39...66 seconds on the Final Round.

Torch was, well, exactly what the name depicts. Pedal to the metal, no mercy and don't get in her way. Very good driving skills. Just don't tangle with her on Princess Margaret Road.

Mr. Bean managed to place himself in the top 4 on the 3rd round and the final round, driving very aggressively. We were told that the last time he raced there, he drove the kart up the barricades. Definitely a feat that is hard to beat. Go..Go..HO!

The Results you have been waiting for:

Trophy Title
Champion - Casam Li ( 8 mins 17.49 secs )
Runner-Up - Thomas Ho ( 8 mins 21.88 secs )
2nd Runner-Up - Patrick Hui ( 8 mins 24.74 secs )

Fastest Lappers
David Tse ( 39.66 secs )
Billy Kong ( 40.18 secs )
Patrick Hui ( 40.54 secs )

Best Slowest Lappers
Torch Tan ( 46.27 secs )
Henry Ho ( 44.16 secs )
Tony Lam ( 43.98 secs )

The presentation was well documented and lots of photos taken. A couple of us decided that we wanted more racing and so we made our way to Jordan Road at great speeds of 40km/hr for supper to exchange war stories. Good food, good beer and good company.

Another race, another day and a thoroughly enjoyable one this was. So the next time you see Karting on the DSOBA calendar, don't sit on your laurels, SIGN-UP!