Asian On-Road Championships report from Australia

The 2nd year of the Asian Onroad Championship season continued this last weekend with Round 3 taking place at the beautiful indoor track of Adrenaline Arena located in the town of Dandenong, which is just short drive outside of Melbourne Australia. The facility is rather new being lest than 1 year old but it has already made an impression as one of the nicest indoor facilities a racer could hope for as their local track.

 

Most of the top On road racers from throughout Australia made the journey to Adrenaline Arena to test their skills on the permanent indoor asphalt track. We had some international drivers make the trip from throughout Asia which included 2006 World Champion and Hot Bodies Ace Andy Moore. Andy who calls the UK home but now is spending many days in Thailand testing for the upcoming World Championships worked it into his schedule to make the trip down under for the AOC. 

 

 

 

The AOC is a 3 day event with practice on Friday, Qualifiers on Saturday and Triple finals for all mains on Sunday. The Triple main format was well received by everyone that even the lower mains would get 3 runs in their finals. 

 

Qualifying went off on schedule for all classes and in the Top Modified Division it did not take long to see who the top challengers would be. Local hot shoe and VBC Driver Ryan Maker who was expected to be quick was setting the early pace, along with Jesse Davis driving an Xray. Jesse is new to electric touring but is a master at nitro racing and was surprisingly quick in the early practice sessions and qualifying. Kyosho driver Simon Nicholson was also showing good pace. As was Hot Bodies Andy Moore who started a bit behind the curve because of a bad set of practice tires but did his best to catch up to the locals. 

 

After qualifying was complete, It was Ryan Maker who put his VBC car on Pole which on the tight and twisty track at Adrenaline is very important. 2nd was the Xray of Jesse Davis followed by independent driver Jordan Cullis also running an Xray.  At the tone of A1 it was Ryan making a perfect start to secure the lead, but part way through the race a car crashed on the straightaway collecting Ryan and took him out of the lead giving  Jesse clear track and in the end a 4 second lead over Maker. Simon who started 8th on the grid drove a great A1 to work his way to 3rd place. World Champion Andy Moore was collected at the start of the race in a hard crash and was not able to continue. 

 

Modified A1

 

A2 was a fantastic fight that unfortunately saw pole sitter Maker make a small mistake that took him out of the lead and again give clean track to Jesse. Even though Davis had nobody in front of him the Hot Bodies of Andy Moore found the pace he had been looking for and gave Davis the absolute fight of his life. Moore thru everything he had at Davis and surprising everyone in the venue Davis did not flinch. Davis went toe to toe with the World Champ and in the end never gave Andy even the slightest opportunity to make a pass and was able to hold on for the win which gave him the overall championship.  4th qualifier Craig McPhee had a good fight with Maker and was able to edge out the TQ driver to hold onto 4th. 

 

A2 Result

 

As the overall championship was decided, the fight was on for the final 2 spots on the podium. Maker, McPhee, Nicholson All who had 1 good result so far needed their best in A3 to secure a podium spot.. At the tone it was Maker who was extremely focused in A3 and determined not to make an error lead the field with pressure from Moore and McPhee. Again as he did in A2. Moore applied as much pressure to Maker as he could but no mistakes from Maker this time and he as able to bring home the A3 win to secure a 2nd place overall. Andy would bring home a 2nd place finish giving him 3rd overall. A tip of the hat to all the drivers who made the A final. Some of the best drivers in all of Australia were in attendance at the AOC and to make the A was a great accomplishment and showed that all these drivers have what it takes to run with the best. 

 

A3 Results

 

 

 

Modified final results (PTS)

 

We also had some fantastic racing in the other classes as well. In the Leespeed Sportsman 21.5 class it was a great battle between your top qualifier Scott Griffins and 4th qualifier Michael Juttner. Both drivers showed great pace in the finals but it was Juttner who was able to outpace the field and bring home the overall win.  Griffins was able to secure the 2nd place overall and having a fantastic 3 finals from 6th on the grid was young driver Dean Paraskevas. Dean was not able to show up for most of the practice rounds so he had far less track time than his competitors  but showed some great skill and patience and earned a well deserved 3rd place overall. 

 

 

 

Sportsman 21.5 Results (PTS)

 

In the Yokomo Stock 17.5 Class it was very close racing in each final and going into A3 the overall win was up for grabs between 3 different drivers. Alex and Derek both had a win and Brian had 2 second place finished. So it would be a great battle in A3 as Alex and Derek went lap after lap separated by only a few car lengths but it was TQ Alex making no mistakes to earn a hard fought win taking A3 by a narrow margin of 1 sec over Derek. Miller would earn the 2nd spot and Brian Stewart with his two 2nd place finishes would be 3rd overall. 

 

 

 

Stock 17.5 Results

 

In the Xray Super Stock 13.5 Class which was our largest class of the AOC it was Chris Stack your 3rd qualifier who overcame a tough start in A1 to bring home the win overall by some fantastic and extremely patient driving in A2 and 3. In both A2 and 3 Chris encountered some bad luck but did not let it deter him and he was able to work his way back to the front and earn the top spot on the podium. Earning 2nd was Kris Kalfoglou and 3rd went to Alex Ilievski. Bad luck was how our top qualifiers day went for Michael Clark. He was the fastest throughout the qualifying rounds and had a great A1 but for round 2 and 3 the only luck he had was bad. 

 

 

 

Super Stock 13.5 Results (PTS)

 

Formula 1 is one of my favorite classes and when you have some racers who really put a lot of time into their cars to make them look scale it really make the class look that much better. The top guy in the class was Rodney Maslovsky who took all qualifying rounds and wins in A1 & A2. Andy Bishop tried to give chase throughout the finals but could not and had to settle for 2nd and a familiar name to the world of F1 James Hunt took the final podium spot.

 

 

 

As I mentioned when F-1 cars are done up scale it really add something to the class and we had 2 guys run replica cars of James Hunt and Niki Lauda and it looked awesome! Well done to Andy Cooke for the Scale designs. 

 

 

 

Formula 1 Results (PTS)

 

One thing that is great about the Adrenaline Arena surface is that it is very smooth and makes for a perfect track for 1/12th cars. Although we did not have a huge turnout in these classes, they did give us some of the most exciting finals of the weekend. We had 2 classes.  Stock and Modified. 

 

The 1/12th stock class also had some exciting finals. In qualifying it was Paul Sims who was the dominant car and made everyone think this was also going to a one horse race and took the pole. In A1 it was just as qualifying went and Sims took it tone to tone, 3rd qualifier Maher finished 2nd and Patrick Perkins who is from the the United States and serving in the Military in Japan made a family vacation out of the trip to the AOC and finished 3rd. So as everyone thought A2 would go much like A1, they were in for a big surprise as Dan Maher found a bit of quickness he had been lacking and made a race out of it. Putting pressure on Sims early in the race and taking over the top spot, they would race very close for the remainder of the race and Maher would win by only a 1.5 second margin again setting up a exciting A3. At the tone it was again Sims who had a great start from pole and lead for the early stages of the race, but his car was not as dominant as before and you could see him struggling a bit to keep it under control. This was all Maher needed to shoot past into the lead and take the win in A3 and earn him the overall win. Sims would take 2nd over and Perkins would round out the podium. 

 

 

 

1/12th Stock Results (PTS)

 

In the Scorpion Power Systems Modified class it was a battle between two very talented 1/12th racers.   Brad Portelli and Andy Bishop. Portelli flexed his muscles in the early round of qualifying taking the first 2 rounds without much challenge from Bishop, but in the final 2 rounds Bishop found his groove and challenged Portelli but just missed the TQ and Protelli would start on pole. In A1 it was a long 8 min fight between Brad and Andy with Brad taking the win with just under a 2 second advantage. In A2 Brad shot out to a comfortable lead but Bishop was able to real him in over the long race and eventually get pass to take the win in A2 setting the stage for a thrilling A3. In A3 it was one of the best races of the day. Portelli again took off like a rocket putting some distance between himself and Bishop, but at about the 5 min mark, Bishop started turning some of the fastest laps of the event in 1/12th and was able to chip away at the lead Portelli had built up making it a fantastic fight till the end. In the closing minute of the race, Andy was pushing as hard as he could to find a way past Brad and made a small mistake and the win would go to Brad. It was an impressive charge from Bishop but he just came up a bit short. 

 

 

 

1/12th Modified Results (PTS)

 

It was a fantastic event in the land Down Under and I cannot thank everyone enough who worked so hard to make the AOC possible. Australia has a tremendously strong racing scene with some of the nicest guys I have had the privilege of racing with. I would like to say thanks to Craig and Damian from Adrenaline Arena for their hospitality and allowing us to bring the AOC to their wonderful facility. Your hard work and dedication in providing such a first class place for everyone to enjoy is appreciated by all of us. More thanks go out to Ryan Maker who was instrumental in helping with all the logistics and planning to ensure the AOC went off without a hitch. Also many thanks to Jordan Cullis for all of his help with the AOC planning. My final thanks go out to our wonderful sponsors who give us such great support and allow us to bring the AOC around to so many great racers and exciting locations. Thanks to XRAY, YOKOMO, TOP, LEESPEED AND SCORPION POWER SYSTEMS.  We look forward to our next AOC event in September which will bring us to one of the most exciting cities in the world. PYC Raceway in Hong Kong will be our host for Round 4 of the AOC and we look forward to bringing the show to a new location and wonderful facility.