Star Mild takes top honors at drag race

JAKARTA (JP): The Star Mild team finished on top in the eighth and final round of the national drag race at Sentul, near Bogor, on the weekend.

The members of the winning team were Robert J. Paul of Canada and local drivers Donnie Pangemanan and Ronny Hermawan.

Paul took first place with 105 points, followed by Donnie with 69 points and Ronny also with 69 points. The Star Mild team also won in Bali (Sept. 2) and Manado (Sept. 6).

After three qualifying rounds, six of the 29 drivers were eligible for the final leg of the race.

Paul, driving a BMW M3, clocked the equal fastest time of 11.875 seconds during qualifying but a five second penalty was added because he jumped the start.

He had to be satisfied with sixth place and a time of 16.953 seconds.

First place went to Wie Wie Rianto (Holden) clocking 11.875, Ronny (Ford RS200) second with 12.579, Donny (VW Beatle) third with 12.713, Felix (VW Beatle) fourth with 13.205 and Iwan Lemes (VW Beatle) fifth with 13.421.

"There's no way that I deliberately jumped the start. I felt my front tires rotating and my sights were set on the light as it turned from red to green. I really regret this incident," Paul said.

About 350 drivers took part in the final leg which started at 5 p.m. Saturday and finished at 3:30 a.m. yesterday. Thousands of people watched the race including Tinton Soeprapto, the circuit's director.

Up until the sixth leg of the race, Paul was on 99 points, Donnie 57 points and Ronny 54 points.

Wie Wie won the sixth leg, leaving Paul and Ronny in second and third place respectively.

The seventh leg, held in Yogyakarta, was stopped because the spectators were too close to the track. None of the racers were given points for that leg.

Paul moved from sixth to first place yesterday with an additional six points, giving him a total of 105. Donnie and Ronnie scored another 12 and 15 points respectively, giving them 69 a piece. (lnt)