Race results of Rounds 9 and 10 of the 2005 Miata Cup Season

Miata Cup Rounds 9 and 10
 

The Miata Cup racers assembled in the brand new  Subic International Raceway (SIR) for rounds 9 and 10 of the Miata Cup 2005 season.  Nov. 26th Saturday would be the first time that anyone of us would drive on the new layout of  the SIR.  There were major changes to the track.  Among them the absence of the notorious "humped" bus stop.  In its place a  bus stop with a vicious right hander coming in from the fast turn 3.  Also a new chicane configuration going into the front straight was in place, right where the "esses" used to be.  The track was also still in its shortened version, the back straight hairpin still around 150 meters short of where it used to be and where it hopefully will be by the next race in Jan. 15.  To be expected the track was kinda half-baked with numerous surface changes and a loose "dirty" and therefore slippery top. 

There were 13 Competitors in all in various classes as follows:

Qualifying

Time Trials were held on Saturday morning using  a three timed lap format, meaning an outlap, followed by three timed flying laps and an inlap.  Joselu whose car was perfect during practice, developed mysterious misfires during qualifying and therefore did not place well.  There were also some incidents due to the fact that the marshals let out cars in batches of three which caused some of the faster cars to run into the slower ones, something that has to be rectified in the future.

The results are as follows:

1.  Joey Pery     1.18.46

2.  Bubi Camus    1.20.65

3.  John Camus     1.21.39

4.  Lito Ignacio     1.23.98

5.  Joey Almeda     1.27.88

6.  Jenny Tan     1.28.17

7.  Romy David     1.31.03

8.  Jerry Jiao     1.33.60

9.  Pocholo Ramirez     1.33.87

10.  Jojo Ozatea     1.36.17

11.  Chito Santiago     1.42.33

12.  Joselu Romero-Salas   2.19.52

13.  Lambert Ablaza  No time

Round 9

John Camus made an excellent start and quickly overtook Joey Pery and Bubi Camus who fumbled their starts.  John was first after turn one followed by Joey and Bubi.    Lito I. 4th followed by Joselu and Romy David.  The rest of the fomation pretty much stuck to the qualifying order for the first lap.  The different classes pretty much sorted themselves out with some notable battles between:

Lito and Joselu - these guys duelled for most of the race.  Joselu who started in the back due to his qualifying problems, had his car resurrected and quickly caught up with Lito Ignacio having to pass most of the NA field.  He stuck to Litos rear up to around lap 7 then made a lunge for the inside of the backstraight hairpin smoking tires and all and took the position.  Lito tried desperately to regain the position but in doing so came in too hot and consequently too wide into turn one of the following lap, spinning his car in front of Joey Pery whos car was overheating due to a head gasket leak.

Lambert and the rest - As usual Lambert provided entertainment for the racers in the rear by offering challenging overtaking scenarios.  Jerry, Chit, Jojo and Jenny had a blast trying to get by Lambert in his Supercharged Miata they also practiced their swearing skills :-)

Try to get past me!  Suckers!  :-) 

John Camus drove a consistent and faultless race to take the overall win with Joselu taking a well deserved come-from-behind 2nd and Lito Ignacio managing to salvage 3rd.

Race 1 (Round 9)   finished in the following order : no lap times were provided, only the fastest of the race. 

1.  John Camus

2.  Joselu Romero-Salas

3.  Lito Ignacio

4.  Joey Almeda

5.  Romy David

6.  Pocholo Ramirez

7.  Jenny Tan

8.  Jerry Jiao

9.  Chito Santiago

10.  Jojo Ozatea

11.  Lambert Ablaza

Bubi Camus - DNF

Joey Pery - DNF 

Fastest Lap of the Race: John Camus - 1.20.14

Round 10

Better start for Joey Pery in Race 2 but again problems with his race car prevented him from finfishing.  With oil smoke billowng out of his exhaust pipe Joey retired in lap three.  Later the cause proved to be a blown turbocharger.  John Camus too experienced problems with a blown differential that caused him to DNF.  John commenting that he felt and heard a loud explosion in the back straight.  Maybe you should take it easy with your starts, eh John?  :-)  Bubi who had fixed his electrial problems the night before sailed smoothly to the finish to take 1st place.  The problem he encountered in the first race was due to a corroded metal terminal that caused false signals to be sent from the intake temp sensor to the Link Computer.  Leave it to Bubi to diagnose exactly what could be going wrong among thousands of possibilities in a turbocharged race car!

 
Bubi -  Winner of Race 2 1

Again there were battles worth noting in the NA field:  Lito again led the NA racers for most of the race but this time hounded by Romy David.  The two were nose to tail until lap 9 with Joselu taking it easy behind the duo.  At the hairpin Lito and Romy come together, Romy slamming his nose into Lito's rear bumper.  The two are able to continue but at the expense of Joselu getting by them both.  Moreover, Romy ends up overtaking Lito!

Romy after the collision.

 
Lito after the collision

Jenny drives a faultless this time and succeeds in keeping the pursuing Pocholo Ramirez behind her.  She spun her car close to the pit entrance in the first race which caused her to lose a couple of places.  Joey A. and Chit Santiago did not partiipate in the second race.

Jenny into the chicane.

Among the street racers, Jerry Jiao, the latest recruit to the Miata Cup, showed more of the racing aptitude that he demonstrated in the BRC races a couple of months back.  Jerry won both races that weekend.  Alfie looks like you now have a bit of competition!

Jerry Jiao
 

Race 2 (Round 10) finished in the following order:  again no lap times were provided, only the fastest of the race.

 1.  Bubi Camus

2.  Joselu Romero-Salas

3.  Romy David

4.  Lito Ignacio

5.  Jenny Tan

6.  Pocholo Ramirez

7.  Jerry Jiao

8.  Lambert Ablaza

9.  Jojo Ozatea

John Camus - DNF

Joey Pery - DNF 

Joey Almeda - DNS

Chito Santiago - DNS

Fastest Lap of the Race:  Bubi Camus 1.20.45

Rounds 11 and 12 will be held at the SIR on January 15, 2006.  Tito Poch promised us that the track will have a new topping all the way around and that it will go all the way to the old hairpin, extending the tack to its old 2.8 km. length.  We hope to see you there!

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