Kim Ki Heung heads the Nitro class at SIGP

Korean driver Kim Ki Heung has completed practice for the 1/8th scale Nitro class in Xiamen as the top seed going into qualifying. The Shepherd driver came through from the 2nd fastest heat, beating out a whole host of international names in both rounds of controlled practice to make his intentions known going into qualifying. Behind it was World Championship finalist Jeff Hamon in 2nd, some 6 tenths back with his Serpent, while Maxima team mates Meen Vejrak and Charlee P were 3rd and 4th. Having spent 2 days here in China to test ahead of today’s official action, Kim declared himself happy with his OS powered Velox and said that he is a fan of the track layout that the organisers have used for the event.

Serpent driver Jeff Hamon ended the seeding practice in 2nd overall, the faster 2nd round taking place in cooler conditions which he said while faster the run was still a bit messy. Having only had 2 runs today he said the rear of his 989 was a little too ‘taily’ during the 4 minute session which he thinks can be fixed by running more gurney. Needing still to improve the car to close the gap to Kim, the Australian said ‘I feel like I know what to change’, Jeff running a different shock setup for CP2 which was not better and so he will revert to his original shock package and instead look for an alternate way to find the grip he is looking for.

In 3rd place was Meen Vejrak, the Maxima driver saying he used his 2nd run today to test 2nd run tires because at the majority of events you must always use new tires each run, which isn’t the case here at the SIGP. While he was able to put in a faster 3-lap run, over the entire run he felt he couldn’t go any faster and so it was no real improvement over a new set of handout Matrix tires. Another to say he is looking for more forward traction the former World Champion believed that it was maybe too cold now and that is why the grip was hard to come by. For Q1 tomorrow, Meen will continue to make some small changes as he looks to find those extra tenths to close the gap.

Charlee P ended the day 4th, the Maxima powered driver using both runs to work on his engine choice, with CP1 not netting the desired result but the Thai driver declaring himself happy with the engine his team selected for CP2. Now with the engine choice clear Charlee will work on the setup of his IF8, the Maxima team using Infinity chassis’ this weekend, and he too will look for more traction as he has found the car too loose for his liking.

In the GT class, it was another Maxima driver Paphon Chanyasak driving a Serpent chassis who set the pace under the floor lights ahead of Felix Law, also running the Cobra GT in 2nd. Ali Lee was 3rd with Fai Ho in 4th and Ma Haoran completing the top 5 heading into qualifying.

View the complete event results here.

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