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Pattaya Mail receives Support Award from Father Ray Foundation

THA-Eastern Chapter holds Sports Day 2009 in Pattaya

PCEC races through meeting

Pattaya Mail receives Support Award from Father Ray Foundation

(L to R) Pattaya Mail Marketing Director Tony Malhotra, Lyndy Moore Eggleton, Public Relations Manager of the Father Ray Foundation, Pattaya Mail’s Managing Director Pratheep Malhotra and Pattaya Mail TV Production Manager Paul Strachan.

Pattaya Mail’s Managing Director Pratheep Malhotra this week received an award from Lyndy Moore Eggleton, Public Relations Manager of the Father Ray Foundation.
Lyndy said, “On behalf of Mike Lancaster, and members of our Development Team, I have great pleasure in presenting you with our most prestigious award in recognition of your generous and continuous support for Father Ray Foundation.”
“Every day, all the year round, we care for 850 abused, abandoned and isolated children and disabled young adults. The support of the local business community and their customers is vital. By donating valuable television time on Pattaya Mail TV and advertising space in Pattaya Mail newspaper, you are helping us to make a positive difference in the lives of children in our care.”
“I trust that your readers will follow your shining example and help us with gifts for the children for Christmas; cash donations and student sponsorship. It costs just 500 baht per month to sponsor a disabled student or an orphaned child. We thank you, in anticipation of your generosity and invite you to become part of the Father Ray Sponsor Family. Simply go to our website and donate now www.fr-ray.org/donate and/or come into our Welcome Center at Sukhumvit Road, Km 145.”

THA-Eastern Chapter holds Sports Day 2009 in Pattaya

Representatives from Dusit Thani Pattaya hold up the sport event banner while other participants prepare for the parade.

The Thai Hotels Association-Eastern Chapter has been supporting Pattaya City’s efforts to reinvent the resort town as a great destination for corporate meetings, a list of fun and recreation involving the sea and the sun as well as in making the city an ideal choice for tourism, including family trips.
On November 15, various hotels in the eastern region signed up to join in games and friendly competitions held at a local school stadium to celebrate the 19th THA-E Sports Day, an annual sport event organized by the association.
Dusit Thani Pattaya was one of the hotels that played local games and competed in a football match among others. The resort’s general manager, Chatchawal Supachayanont, who is also the president of the THA-E Chapter believes that the sports event will help in building a strong solidarity and fostering goodwill among member hotels while at the same time maintaining the image of Pattaya as a city that supports civic programs such as sports activities.

PCEC races through meeting

Roger Fox, emcee for the regular Sunday meeting of the Pattaya City Expats Club on November 22 at the Amari’s Henry J. Beans Restaurant, began the proceedings with the usual announcements, then introduced guest speaker Ron Weaver, better known by his nickname Q’on. He is the managing director of Alexia Solutions, LLC. He has recently opened a radio controlled model car business in Pattaya.

Ron Weaver, better known by his nickname Q’on, founder of NanoTrax, tells PCEC members how he has turned his hobby, micro radio controlled car racing, into a thriving business.
Q’on started by giving his background. He is 34 years old and has lived in Thailand for almost 7 years. He said like many of us, it was the beauty of Thailand that attracted him here, but after being here for a while he needed something more to do with his life. So, he began looking for something that not only interested him but that could one day be a profitable alternative to his current profession of internet design and development.
He said radio controlled cars has always been one of his interests since he was 15 years old. He worked as a dishwasher and saved over $400 US to buy his first radio controlled model, a Kyosho Ultima. Although he loved radio controlled cars, he couldn’t afford such a hobby at the time, so he took a long break until he was 31 and living in Thailand. He noted that in January 2009 he was introduced to the Kyosho dNaNo radio controlled car and when he saw it, he tried it and couldn’t resist buying three of them - one for himself, one for his wife Joom, and the third for his son. It was at that moment, he said, that the seed was planted for his new endeavor.
He took the cars home and ran them on the floor and was severely disappointed. When run on the floor it collected dust like a Hoover vacuum and spun around like a bumper car at high speed.

John Fishback conducts the open forum -’everything you wanted to know about life & living in the Land of Smiles’.
Pattaya R.C. Powerboat has an RCP/Kyosho track for mini radio controlled car, and taking note of the surface, Q’on said they set out to find a similar material so they could build their own home circuit track. After some effort with several versions, they came up with a workable and fun surface to run their cars.
Enjoying their home track so much, his initial thoughts were to build and sell the home circuit tracks. But, after discussing it with a distributor, they wound up selling their model instead.
Q’on said he then developed the concept of NanoTrax. He opened a website in late January and started looking for a location for their new business. He found a property on Thepprasit Road with 4 floors of empty space that was perfect for building the playroom of his dreams. They began construction in late February.
The eventual design and construction required an investment of over 4 million baht, which caused him to bring in a close friend as a co-investor. By the end of May 2009, construction was finished and they had acquired enough inventory to open the shop. They held the grand opening celebration on May 30.
To his knowledge it is the first indoor mini-radio controlled racing shop in Thailand and quite likely, the only one in the world outside of Japan, the birthplace of dNaNo.
He drew on his previous experience and developed a website geared toward communicating with people rather than trying to sell them something. Q’on pointed out that NanoTrax is primarily a place for adults but children often come to the shop interested in playing with their cars. He said that fathers and sons have visited his shop and discovered a new activity that they can share. He believes that this kind of hobby should be a family activity and he developed the shop with that in mind by providing alternative entertainment for all their visitors. They have been open now for 6 months and so far the feedback he has received has been one hundred percent positive.
In response to several questions, Ron noted that the shop is located on Thepprasit Road between Soi 7 and 9. His website is www.nanotrax.com or www.nanotrax.net. His shop is open from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. and they do serve food and beverages.
There are two tracks (circuits) for racing the cars. One is on the main floor and the other is on the next floor up where you can sit down while controlling your car. They use a radio control system that will accommodate 40 cars at one time. There are over 30 different models available; each a replica of the real car with similar driving characteristics.
Further, performance can vary among the same model depending on how it is equipped and set up. Q’on said that the most popular models are the Porsche 911GT and Ferrari. The hourly track fee is 80 baht. It is 200 baht to rent a car. They also sell the cars with costs ranging up to 5,000 baht depending on the model and how it is equipped.
During the question and answer period, several members of the audience noted they had already visited the shop and it was a fun place to visit.
Emcee Roger then updated everyone on coming events and called on John Fishback to conduct the always informative, interesting, and sometime humorous Open Forum where questions are asked and answered about living in Thailand and Pattaya in particular.

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