-Jakarta, Indonesia- Asian Games: The 18th Asian Games 2018 included the jet ski as a sport to compete in the said event. I cannot disagree that the event could have been more successful if the (INASGOC) Indonesian Asian Games Organizing Committee had done their job well and efficient. I can say that the jet ski sport committee headed by Mr. Fully Aswar was outstanding and exceeded expectations from us participants by making a one in the world, top class, state of the art jet ski race venue by having a world class equipment and innovations. Kudos to Mr. Aswar and his team in the jet ski sport committee and the (AJBA) Asian jet ski Boating Association. Without their help and assistance, most of the riders wouldn’t have participated and lost by default in the race and that includes us (Team Philippines). The inefficiency of the INASGOC in the Asian Games was very obvious and to the point that containers of different countries were released late and this giving the teams having not enough time to prepare and tune their crafts. I was lined up to race in the Runabout 1100 Stock class using a Sea-Doo Spark and Endurance Runabout Open using a Yamaha FX Turbo built by R&D racing. To our dismay, because of the inefficiency of the staff of INASGOC particularly a certain Mr. Krisna Baruga who was supposed to be in charge of the shipping of containers for the different countries participating in the Asian Games, did not relayed my shipping documents to the official forwarder of the said event resulting to delays of release of my container from Manila, Philippines and the air freight of the Sea-Doo Spark. Race day was August 23-26 in which I was supposed to race the spark on the 23rd and 24th. The Spark was released August 23 midnight which made it useless to race because I failed to race on 2 runs (moto) during that day. We would still need to fine tune the jetski and set it up and making it no point to race for the following day. So we focused on my Yamaha FX Turbo which was released in the midnight also of August 21 which gives us time to test and prepare the unit because it will be racing on August 25-26. Testing and tuning was very promising for the Yamaha FX Turbo and confidence of the team was high making us a threat for the win. We are being helped and tuned by Yamaha Japan Factory mechanic Mr. Takahiro Yamaguchi to assure the performance of the craft is at its best.
August 25, race day and moto 1 for the endurance Runabout Open, it was a Le Mans start style as riders had to run from the beach to the jet ski and start the grueling 35 minutes plus 1 lap endurance race. The water condition was very rough and the course was a bit tricky and challenging for riders testing out their skills at its finest. Waves were 1.5-2 meters and for sure it will not be an easy race. As the whistle blows and the rubber band snaps, we tan towards the jet ski, started and we left the starting gate 10th out of 13 riders in the grid. I instantly realized the advantage and power of the Yamaha FX Turbo’s power and stability against other race boats especially on the rough water as everyone struggled jumping as high as 10 feet above the water. The water condition became favorable to the longer and bigger FX model compared to others and the power of the engine was fantastic that I was slowly passing other riders one by one. As we finish the second lap, I was already at third place and going for the move to pass the second place rider, disaster struck as my engine stalled exactly in front of the front stretch. The engine was on idle and my throttle won’t work. I knew right there that it was electrical issues. I stopped the engine and popped the rear seat of my jet ski out and tapped the wire harness near the engine control unit (ECU). Then started and it worked back. My team were on the shore. I decided to go to them to have the jet ski checked as I know it’s a long race and I am confident to catch the riders ahead. As they cleared me out to race again, I went on with my race but quarter of the track my jetski stalled again with the same symptoms. I went on for that whole lap and same scenario for a couple of times. Kill the engine. Restart and run just to reset the computer of the jet ski. Me and my crew decided to stop the race to avoid further damage to the engine and for safety reasons for not being hazard to other riders on the track and on me as well because we were all running at high speed and jumping big waves. It was a very hard decision to make as I knew from that point, my medal hopes are gone as I will be losing a lot of points. The team worked on the jet ski till the evening finding what cased this issue until deciding to change the whole electrical harness and found out also that the main relay of the fuel pump was grounded. We changed the whole fuse box assembly then. Our hopes were high to show what we are capable of and the potential of the craft the result was the same. The gremlins just haunted my jet ski and our hopes for a model was gone. The team was prepared from spare parts to tools and assistance from top mechanics in the industry. The gremlins of the electrical system on my 12.5 hour old 2018 Yamaha FX turbo jet ski just ruined our hopes. I am still proud that we fought till the end. Fighting and pushing things to happen up to the last moto (moto 3) with the hopes of getting points and showing to the world that the Filipino people are capable in this sport and we are a threat in this field of sport. We never quit up to the last run. We fought to the end.
This campaign wouldn’t become a reality if not for the help of good friends who believed in me to win this event. Mayor Richard Gomez, Chef De Mission of Team Philippines Asian Games 2018. Mr. Manny Cabili, Deputy Chef De Mission. Mr. Takahiro “Kaicho” Yamaguchi of Yamaha Factory Racing Japan. Mr. Permporn Teerapatpanitch and Mr. Tanawat “Kong” Manhadee of Pusan Racing Team Thailand. Mr. Harley David, President of (JSAP) Jet Sports Association of the Philippines. To my sponsor KYT Helmet and Mr. Peter Yung and Mr. Charlie Ong of KYT Helmet Philippines. A huge thank you to the following people for making this campaign a reality. I am very proud that we showed the international community that we can be at the podium and the Philippines is a country to beat and a threat in this sport. “Para sa bayan! Laban Pilipinas!”
