Colin crowned champ

KOTAKINABALU: Favourite Colin Jelf won the UIM F2000 World Cup Powerboat 2007 race in Sabah and with it. the top position in the overall standings, but there was gloom in the Jelf Racing Team as brother. Owen found himself disqualified. An irregularity iu carburettor size in Owen's boat did him in and it cost the Briton dearly as he lost not only second spot in the final Sabah leg held at the Waterfront yesterday (Monday) morning, but he also dropped two spots in the overall standings. The most fortunate pilot was Norway's Rick Ivar Haakonsen who almost did not start the race when his boat crashed in the race on Sunday, as he finished behind the Jelf brothers, but moved up to runner-up position after Owen's disqualification.

Head of State. Tun Ahmadshah Abdullah gave away the prizes to the winners. At a press conference after the prize presentation. Colin told reporters it was a very hard race and that he was very happy to have emerged winner. "For me the qualifying was perfect to get into pole position and yesterday's race was very hard for me because my aim was to win the world championship." he said. "My aim was to stay the right way up which was very difficult. Luckily that all changed today (Monday) as the conditions were far more favourable for our set-up and with the pole position I managed to get round the first lap in the lead. "And with my brother in second he was pushing me hard. I just had the edge today and with the pace boat sini-ation I thought he may have a chance to jump me on the restart, but I got into the first comer and that gave me the advantage to carry on." said Colin.

Rick, who finished second said he had a very good start but he was really lucky with this race after the accident he had on Sunday. "We worked hard all night to finish the boat and get it into racing condition. This (third) place (at time of press conference Rick did not know he had been pushed up due to Owen's disqualification) was actually more than what I expected." he said.
Rick congratulated the Jelf brothers saying they were the ones to watch for the new (2008) season. "This third place is like a win for me though." he added. Following Owen's disqualification. Uvis Slakteris of Latvia finished third in the Sabah race. But Uvis was neither happy nor proud of his new positioning. "I feel sorry for Owen, and I would rather be third by finishing third in the race proper rather than this way." he said.

Meanwhile. UIM Commissioner Gordon Sutherland said as called for under the UIM race rules, a technical inspection was earned out after the race, "as we are very strict on these matters."
"Among others, we have to ship the engines, check die gearbox for irregularities etc."
"In boat no 3. it was discovered that that one of the two head gaskets was made of a thinner material than that of the standard one." said Sutherland. "The normal standard is 1.45mm but in the case of boat no 3. we found that one gasket was of the specified size while the other was only limn thick." He added: "In the performance point of view, it does make a difference, although slight. Having a thinner gasket head would make the engine crispier but it does give the boat an edge. "It was a mistake on the part of the crew to have fitted on the wrong-sized gaskets. It was a wrong choice by the Jelf team and it cost them dearly. "Rules are rules and we had to make the unfortunate decision to disqualify boat number three (3) winch was piloted by Owen Jelf of Great Britain.

Eager to have JIAJA first album

JIAJA made their appearance during the Powerboat Race concerts on weekend. Despite some commotion prior to their gigs, they managed to draw the masses’ attention with their classy acts. Just before they began, they made a little announcement on their debut album which will hit the market early next year. Following the announcement, they belted out songs from the album just to get the audience sampled what they have in store. They performed five songs altogether but these three tunes really captured my attention (I think they just sang continuously without mentioning the title of the songs)

This song reminds me the first time I heard ‘Tiwas Kotoh’. I just can’t help grinning listening to the lyrics. “Aku mau kasi tau apa yang aku rasa”….”oh sayang aku rasa aku suka kau”…..”jangan kau mati lepas aku kasi tau”. A very typical way of saying things at any street in Sabah =). I like both the melody and music of this song. I thought it’s not a bad idea if they include children’s voices (without music) at one stage of the frequently repeated chorus line “oh sayang aku rasa aku suka kau”…:=).

If I’m not mistaken they sang this song in English during the final of Blast Off. It has a strong Woodstock Rock Festival material (just can't avoid noticing the catchy drum beat in this song...si Karuk bah tu drummer dia!)

This song has the strong feel of Indon band that makes me a little bit confused. Either it is originally theirs or it is indeed a song by one of the Indon bands (?) But since they’re promoting their debut album I presume it’s one of the tracks included in their pet project.

Having sampled their materials I thought of rushing to the nearby music store to get their album, almost forgotten the facts that it’s not released yet:)

Powerboat Concert

KK folks were treated with two series of concerts held in conjunction with the World Cup Powerboat Race in KK over the weekend. The first concert which took place on Saturday featured Sabahan AF stars such as Candy, Lotter, Nora, Rich and Felix. They shared the stage with other well known local singers namely Amath Asir, Alfie (the lead vocalist of the group Cosmic), JIAJA and one invited crooner from the USA Mr. Felix Samora (hope I get the sir name correctly - this guy is said to be the buddy of our mayor). Well if you look at the program schedule, Saturday’s concert suppose to feature Anuar Zain where as the AF stars were scheduled to take the stage on Sunday. But for unknown reason, it turned out to be the other way around. Anyway here are some video clips, mostly on the first night, which we managed to capture.

All the way from the USA, giving the audience a taste of Las Vegas…=)

The AF stars doing, what I call, 'The Santai Unplugged Jamming Session'. Too bad Candy didn’t grab the opportunity showing off her guitar playing skill. In fact she’s the only one who didn’t perform solo during this segment. (Oops...excuse for the peeping-tom shooting. It's hard to avoid those blocking heads and people passing by)

Si 'lelaki itu' singing Lelaki Ini on the second night of the concert

This is indeed a long distance paparazzi shot =) The night was so windy and Anuar's voice travels dominantly to the back of the stage

The second concert on Sunday features many more local talents such as Andalusia, Valerie Wong, Betcy Michael, Kinabalu King, One Nation MC (I think this one is from KL) and Decipher apart of Anuar himself but due to some unforeseen circumstances only Anuar's Lelaki Ini managed to be shot

More videos from the concert on dbos YouTube channel. Both concerts were emceed by DJ Constan (who also performed with his group Kinabalu Kings)