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เหมือนหนังฝรั่งจบไปก่อน ตอนนี้ก็เลยมีภาค sub Thai มาให้ชมกันครับ เป็น Review บันทึกเหตุการณ์และประสบการณ์ฉบับภาษาไทย โดย รศ.ดร.สุรเชษฐ์ ชุติมา ติดตามชมได้ที่นี่เลยครับ

First it is only appropriate to say thank you to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Surachate Chutima, the team’s principal adviser for all his hard work. From funding to mentoring the team, he had done it all.

When the dust has settled and the achievement has sunk in, it was time to return home. Not quite wrong to say it was quite a heros’ welcome. We were greeted by a big welcome banner and a host of people to congratulate us on our return. Oh, not to mention a TV interview!

So, that brought a final curtain to this wonderful adventure. We will be seeing you again at the Thailand SAE Auto Challenge 2010. Till then.

All we had to do on the final day was the hairdo to make sure we looked good in the group photo! All overseas teams were granted the privilege to be shoulder-to-shoulder on the front row together with the top-5 cars from the previous year.

Then, the moment everybody anticipated had arrived, the final ranking announcement. The Optimum team from KMUTT were 22nd out of the 80 registered teams! We were awarded the Rookie Winner prize for being the best first timer!

If we had a breather yesterday, we would have a full night’s sweet dreams tonight. The war was over and we were able to enjoy ourselves. We walked around the pits to visit other teams and made friends. Spare time was such a luxury to have here. Some teams were still queuing up for technical inspection, you know?

You really had to be there to feel the relief of tension. Smiles were emerging on everyone’s faces. We had come all the way to Japan to do a job and we did it convincingly.

Relief was not the word to describe how our guests felt. Impressed they were, very very much so. His excellency came back with us to the pit and personally congratulated the drivers with a cold icecream! For dehydration, very thoughtful, sir.

It was the moment the team felt great accomplishment and unimaginable pride they had earned. His excellency also offered his words of wisdom to end the day on a very high note. Great feelings.

This was it. A 350-pointer that could have turned our ranking right up the table. Car number 80 was due to set off at 3pm, which was exactly the time our guest of honour Privy Councillor ACM Kamthorn Sindhavananda arrived at ECOPA to witness our adventure. His excellency and guests were seated at the first grandstand at the start-finish line.

Our car was released. There was no pressure on the driver. There was nobody to beat. Our goal was to do our best and we just wanted to see our cross the finishing line and put KMUTT on the scoreboard.

The driver had other thoughts and pushed the car rather hard! The tyres squeaked as the car zoomed through the chicanes. The gallery roared with anticipation as they appreciated the true racing spirits.

The drive clocked an average of 1:05 minute a lap and that was better than we had actually hoped for. The best part was, we completed the gruelling 20-laps and got past the checkered flag!

The preparation was complete and the car was ready. We entered the track with a lot of confidence carried from the previous day where we clocked an impressive 58-second lap. That time actually put us 29th in the AUTOCROSS challenge, which was the ENDURANCE test running order too. It seemed we had some time to burn before our turn.

We spent the morning fine-tuning the car a little and took the Black Pearl to the test track to warm up the tyres and gave the drivers a little familiarity with the Japanese track.

It was almost 4pm and that was the deadline for entering the AUTOCROSS event. We managed to queue up the car about half an hour before it finished. The course was a tricky 1.1km with chicanes, hairpins, slalom, you name it. Every team was allowed two drivers, each with two chances to attack the course and the best lap time would count towards the final scores.

Our first driver posted a respectable 58second on his second lap.

Given all the past events, it was not surprising to say ‘disaster struck again!’. The newly installed silencer fixing broke and the part was now hanging loosely from the back of the exhaust pipe. It was unfortunate but due to the rule which clearly stated that only proper cars could be running on the circuit, we retreated back to our pit.

Well, we could not beat the deadline anyway, so there was no rush and we might as well take time to do a good job on the silencer. We got help from the Honda technicians who were really really helpful in every imaginable way. The old man found a spart part, drilled holes in it and welded it to our exhaust. Great craftsmanship.

There was another minor adjustment to make. The inspector (who, by now, we had started calling Mr.จู้จี้) made a comment that our modified exhaust was vibrating and it seemed unsafe. He told us to mechanically fix it to the car chassis. Yet more setback.

So, after all the hard work, our car was put up for the noise test once again. Guess what, we passed with an exact 110dB! Good job boys!

Lastly, the car underwent a brake test, which we passed without much trouble.

Now, we got to the interesting part. Our car’s first official run. Japan, are you ready?