Solodex 3 Arima Race Club 2005
- Written by Kavita
- Published in Autocross
CARS finally gets a third round of Solodex off the ground, this time at Arima Race Club. The rain didnt stop the 'dexers from having a blast though!
The long and eagerly awaited Solodex III finally got underway at the Arima Race Club on July 3, 2005. With gloomy skies looming large, twenty-eight racers braved the potential storm to tear up the asphalt. There was a nice cross section of cars on show, from station wagons to Evos, and a healthy field of novices and pros alike. The bravest man of the day had to be Richard Hill though, who came out despite a barrage of lamp-pole jokes - In the end however, the legendary Mr. Hill showed them who was boss…
With Solodex continuing to grow, the novice class has become the one to watch. Nine novices came out, equaling the ES class for the most entrants! Even as the regular novices were now beginning to show their prowess, there were first timers already starting to show early form. In the end, however, it was Rayard Hosein who upset the apple cart. Demonstrating well how much persistence and practice pay off, Rayard bested class favorite, Karen Pinheiro to take top honors, after his third try at Solodex.
Rayard managed an impressive time of 96.815 seconds in only his second run, opening a two second gap over Karen. With the heavens opening up after lunch, Rayard’s time stood, as everyone’s third and fourth runs were hampered by the wet conditions. Newcomer, Kazim Tullah took his SiR Civic to a creditable third, a mere 0.027 seconds behind Karen. One can only speculate on how the day would have ended, had the conditions dried out. The rain did however make for some entertaining runs from first timers Kirby Singh in his big sister’s Corolla, and Allan Rajkumar-Maharaj, aka Zodiaque, in his old-school RWD Lancer. Both of them displayed some nice sideways action in the wet.
The ES class, which also attracted nine competitors, and saw the closest competition, with less than two seconds separating third and eight place! This class also saw a nice cross section of cars, with two Suzukis being split for first and third by a Honda Civic. In the end, it was Wayne Hutchinson in his Suzuki Baleno, who made the most of the early dry weather conditions and laying down a time of 90.589 seconds, besting class favorite, Ryan Ramasran, who trailed him by 1.117 seconds in his ground-scraping Honda Civic hatchback.
The real entertainment in the ES class however, was provided by Clayton Jobity, who made full use of his handbrake and showed just how well he could control his Toyota Corolla while on the edge, and over the edge as well!
Rounding out the top three was Amir Hosein, in his popular ‘Ignorant’ Suzuki Ignis Sport. Amir chose to break the trend by achieving his best time in his last run, proving once again, that it ain’t over till the final run, even if it is in the wet. Amir’s final run must have shocked his class competitors because at the end of the morning’s dry runs, he seemed to be off the pace and off his game. Once again, one wonders how events might have unfolded had the track remained dry………but that’s racing. The other hotly contested class was HS, with ES class destroyer, Kirk Ho Hing stepping down in class and running ‘.phper’, the friendly Corolla Wagon. .phper turned out to be not so friendly, and trampled the competition, both in the dry, and then the wet. He trampled some ES and ESP cars too!
The rest of HS decided to make a race of it among themselves, and by run three, less than two seconds separated Kevin Singh, in his stolen Corolla, and the Mazda 323s of Shaun Pollard and Scott Dopson. With Kevin trailing Shaun by half a second, he went for all or nothing, and pulled off a final time of 98.891 seconds, beating Shaun’s 101.235. Scott Dopson also pulled off his best time in his final run, beating out Shaun to take third place honors, proving again that in Solodex, no time is safe until the last car runs.
The fastest cars put on quite a show for spectators, with two cars in SS, and three in ESP. Underdog of the day was Robert Bates, who was busy with the timing equipment, and did not have the luxury of being able to observe the competition on the course, or to relax, for that matter. Nevertheless, Master Bates set the standard for the day, setting down a dry time of 88.116 seconds in his second run. His Kumho Victor-shod Primera overcame the four wheel drive power of Richard Hill’s Evolution, and the lightweight handling of Tim Kimpton’s Caterham Super7, both of which ran in the higher SS class. Tim did however put on a show, putting his car sideways in the wet, and demonstrating how tail-happy a RWD car can be.
In the end, there was something for everyone. There were the powersliding supercars, powersliding family cars, ignorant yellow cars, Hondas galore, and even some nice, friendly station wagons, proving once again, Solodex really does cross all motoring divides. There was also a nice trend among spectators, with families coming out to watch and support the sport. Parents be warned though, those sweet little toddlers are just waiting for their feet to reach the pedals…
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