The game has started again here in the Philippines and for the second time in a row we are back in Moon Rock; today was the first day of the last leg of the IDF Asian Tour.
The track is only a mile away from the Seaside track where we were on, just 2 days ago.
Beautiful sun and heavy heat was again our daily meal: 4 practice runs in the morning and a warm up run in the afternoon and 2 timed runs were given to the riders to qualify for tomorrow's "hot" finals.
In the women category, Emily Pross (USA) kept dominating within the girls improving her track record of 2018 followed by surprising french Lea Richard, and Elissa Mah (NZ) in 3rd. As Jenny Schauerte (GER) and Abigail Vitoria (PHI) got injured at last race, there is some room on the podium for other very talented feminine riders.
In the junior category, Andrey Ibanez (PHI) set the fastest time, beating Kegie Ando (PHI) and Riley Young (AUS).
The masters saw once again the domination from recent winner of Seaside IDF WQS, australian fisherman, Benjamin Hay (AUS). Peter Fritz Siasion (PHI) and Caloy Sambrano (PHI) took respectively 2nd and 3rd.
In Luge, german rider Ulrich Becker tried to go faster than Abdil Mahdzan (MAY) but couldn’t do better than ending second. Actually Abdil beat his own track record of 2018 improving more than a second. While he's getting faster every year, Oliver Gierling (who took second at Seaside IDF WQS) took the third place this time.
In Open, in the first timed qualification, Andrew Atchison (USA) made a strong impression by leading by half a second his opponents and breaking the track record made by Thiago Gomes Lessa (BRA) in 2018. Jackson Shapiera (AUS), becoming stronger race after race like back in the old days, took a great 5th position with a clean run. Harry Clarke (AUS) came second, confirming he is in good shape after his recent victory. Davis Lanham (AUS) was fast too and took third while ranking leader Mitch Thompson (AUS) came 4th .
But things became serious on the second run, that happened on a colder asphalt.
Chase Hiller (USA), one of the first to go for the second run, broke immediately the track record, with 1.38.48 and like him, many riders were there to improve their first time run. But Harry Clark had the last word and totally smashed the track record with a time of 1.38.25, proving that his recent victory gave him full confidence on his way to take the IDF Asia Pacific 2019 title…only the race tomorrow will tell.
With a track made for strategy and cold blood, we expect a great show for the finals.
