Friday, June 22, 2007 Breaking records brings Lim to racing heaven By Rommel C. Manlosa Sun.Star Staff Reporter
BREAKING the record he never expected placed Cebu’s ace drag racer David G. Lim on high heavens.
In the recently concluded Castrol Edge - Mayor Tomas Osmeńa Cup 5 National Drag Race competition, Lim who established four new records, just can’t stop talking about how sweet it was to break a three-year-old record using a “not-so-very- ophisticated” car.
“Imagine, I broke a record of an eight-cylinder super charged Nitros-fed car with my four-cylinder turbo car! It is just so wonderful. I thought nobody could break that old record but here I was, breaking the record that Ken Kepner made three years ago,” Lim said.
Lim clocked 9.820 seconds in the quarter mile, the Philippines’ newest record for the Fastest Car, the Fastest 4 Cylinder, the Fastest Honda, the Fastest Front Wheel Drive and The Quickest Car with a top speed of 235 kilometers per hour in 400 meters. Overall, Lim won five accolades during the June 10-11 race including the Quick 8 title.
Club
His Honda chopped-top is also the first four-cylinder car to get into the nine-second club.
Kepner’s Dec. 20, 2003 record was 9.957 seconds and since then, the American expat has not raced but hinted of a comeback after hearing of Lim’s record- breaking run.
“Kepner called me after the race and congratulated me. He told me that he is going to race next time. So I guess it’s going to be a lot tougher in the next competition,” Lim said.
Making records is not new for Lim, who set a 10.326-second mark two years ago that was shattered by Jonathan Chiu of Manila last October also at the SRP.
Challenge
“It was a challenge for me to break records, including my own record. That’s why when Jonathan came to shatter my record, I made some slight modifications in my car and I conditioned myself to break the record.
On my first run (for a record) I was surprised to run 10.08 seconds, the second was also at the same time. So, on my third I broke Kepner’s record.
After that, I talked to my mechanic and made other adjustments for my final run, but I guess God would not allow it (anymore) because it started to rain,” Lim said laughing.
The fun side of breaking Kepner’s record according to Lim was that a record established by an eight-cylinder car was broken by his four-cylinder car.
Alertness
“I honestly don’t know if this record will stay long. Because I myself want to break this and many racers from Manila will surely come and try to break this. So, on the next race I’ll be ready to defend or even break it,” Lim said.
As for his preparation for the October race, Lim will make a few more mechanical and electrical modification and focus himself on one thing—the race.
“Alertness inside or outside the race track must be made. I just hope we could have our own race track where we can test and make our preparations prior to the race day,” Lim said.
Race organizer, Neil Labrador of the Peak Summit Group is hoping to have more records broken in the next race to give more prestige to the Cebu competition.
