Riantor wins Sentul national drag race

JAKARTA (JP): Local driver Wie Wie Riantor won the national drag race at Sentul, near Bogor yesterday but race favorite Robert J. Paul still heads the national race rankings.

Riantor, driving a Holden Commodore, clocked in at 12.286 seconds. His victory was a surprise to the 10,000 spectators as the Star Mild team, favored to win the race, finish behind the champion.

But Riantor's victory only earned him total points of 43 and placed him third in the rankings.

The Star Mild team of Canadian Robert J. Paul and Indonesian Ronny Hermawan had to be satisfied with second and third placing respectively.

Paul, in a BMW M3 recorded a time of 12.487 while Ronny, driving a Ford RS200, clocked 12.635

Although Paul lost the race to Riantor, the Canadian's points rose to 99 and allowed him to keep his points lead. Ronny also upped his points to 54 and is second in the rankings.

Donnie Pangemanan, who was placed second behind Paul with 57 points, was absent from the race.

"I consider the race to be very competitive," Paul said. "I had trouble with my car especially during the start."

Ronny said he had tried his best but could not compete with the speed of other drivers.

"I tried to push it as hard as possible but I had difficulty keeping up with the other racers who were driving at top speed."

The Indonesian Motor Association (IMI) chairman, Bob Nasution, Sentul circuit director Tinton Soeprapto and Jakarta IMI chapter chairman Oky Harwanto were among the 10,000 fans who flocked to the event from 4 p.m on Saturday until early yesterday morning.

Some 280 drivers from Medan, Bandung, Surabaya, Semarang and Jakarta took part in the one-day race.

Dolly Indra Nasution, Dendy Rukmana, Alvin Nasution, Pare Soemoele and Ono Mikono all failed to pass the qualifying round because they could not keep up with the other drivers.

Yesterday's race was the sixth in the national drag racing series. The first was held in Batam.

Paul and Ronny won two races in Bali and Manado. The Bali race was held Sept. 2 while the Manado event was held Sept. 16.

Apart from the drag race, there was also a 0-1500cc sedan class event. Tjahyadi Gozali in his Honda Civic won the race with a time of 15:08.50. Second place went to Baginda P.H. Simbolon (Honda Civic) with 15:55.90 and third position to Sugeriawan (Daihatsu Winner) with 15:63.70.

The national 0-1500cc sedan class race will continue with two races in Yogyakarta on Nov. 9 and Sentul on Dec. 7. (lnt)