Ride Cup 2013 Round One

By Matt On April 24, 2013 · Add Comment

Ludovic Leflon of Team Serpent reports from Thailand:

Last Sunday saw the opening round of the 2013 Ride Cup held at the world famous RC Addict Circuit in Bangkok, Thailand. For this first gig of the season, the Ride organisers decided to have a Modified class coming along with the now traditional TC Open 13.5T, GT 13.5T, 17.5T Blinky and Formula 1. Having a Mod class was a brilliant idea since some big European gunners came back in town to test some of their latest chassis/electronic equipment. Along with local stars such as Atsushi Hara, Meen Vejrak, Chavit and Charlee P, Marc Rheinard, Viktor Wilck, Thomas Pumpler and Jilles Groskamp were also keen for a proper track fight.
I originally planned to race the Open 13.5T and F1 classes but having the chance to race Modified at my home track, that would have been quite sad to miss it. So I signed up for three classes – again!

Formula 1
The F1 race was clearly a great event. The F110 was eventually set-up the right way and I started the 15-minute long A final from fourth. After a very clean race and about a lap lost during the tyre change, I finished fifth overall. This put me right among the very same guys who topped the time sheet at the TITC.

Touring Car Open 13.5T
I usually struggle a lot to be competitive in this class. The class being so popular in Thailand, the level is really high and making the A final is quite often out of reach, but not on that day!
My 411 Eryx “Stock” was freshly rebuilt and I believe, fresher batteries and the latest 13.5T HW motor did have a big effect on the overall result.
I was leading my group in Q1 and when I was about to lap down another driver, but the last one crashed into me. That cost me a bit of time but Q2 was faster anyway. So I was in the A final. albeit with the number nine on the shell.
The two finals went quite all right since I managed to finish seventh overall. The top five scored 18 laps within a three-second gap – impressive. But I was quite happy with the car and for the first time in a while, the “driver” also felt right and in “sync” with some of the fastest guys around.

Touring Car Modified
With about half a dozen World Championship titles lining up on the driver stand, it was reasonable to join the race for some fun. The top ten was about the same as the last TITC Modified Final so I was happy to get with my Thai and Japanese friends in the B final in second spot.
The first leg saw a serious crash at the three-minute mark but the car stood well and I could finish the race without any further trouble.
In leg two, I took a fast start and kept the lead all the way down to the finish line. Overall result put me on the second step of the podium due to a point based tie break with Tryn. Anyway, that last win did feel good because the driving style switch between stock and mod is quite something to go through.
Having such quite honourable results in these three classes really made my day. I’m now looking forward to the next Ride Cup round, but will also get prepared for the ETS round in Apeldoorn next month. A big thanks to every body at Thai Ride and Oe-san, another huge one to Ronald Baar, Michael Salven, Cher Chiang and everyone involved in Serpent.
Of course, without forgetting Salton Dong from Hobbywing, Andy Moore from Moore-Speed, Jang-san from Muchmore, Uchida-san from Sanwa and Pumin from RC Addict/Serpent Thailand.