Taken in 2004 during at the DCM’s Defying Grip 1 competition in Shah Alam..when hairs were still intact and bellies weren’t so bloated..
Blast from the past #2
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Category Archives: Drifting
Stardrift Challenge 2009 Final round 10th-11th Oct 2009 Malacca
Due to the clashing of dates, Jane and I was forced to miss two rounds of the Stardifts challenge series . Being a 3 round series, we made it a point to not miss this final round. We were totally drained from the Singapore event the week before, with Jane was recovering from a flu while I was showing early signs of ,contracting it from her 😛 . However , we soon found out that the state of our health were not the only hurdle that we will be experiencing that weekend!
DAY 1:Practice
We arrived at the venue early Saturday morning only to find that the trailer transporting our car was late .So we promptly set our pit up and just basically hung out till almost mid afternoon when it finally arrived .
The course was set up similar to the last round which gives an advantage to those who attended it but nevertheless we got around familiarizing it quickly. I had noticed that my runs were other plague with shifting gremlins. On almost every run, I had trouble either up shifting or down shifting. Being intermittent and not happening on a specific gear , this problem was initially thought to be a clutch problem which had Leong adjusting it almost after every run. This carried on to the point that I wasn’t able to shift and I knew that it was the gearbox instead
My practice runs were plague by shifting issue; either when shifting up or down.
Jane runs were good but lack consistency.
Jenshen was enjoying his newly acquire power from his freshly transplanted 4agze supercharged engine as he was able to do quiet a few good runs
.
. Our fears was confirmed when we found metal fillings in our transmission oil when we drained it.
So a quick call to our friend Joe Han of Drift House had him locating one gearbox for us but delivery could only be made later in the evening.
(L-R) Jenshen, Leong and Man; Waiting for the parts to arrive.Leong seen here in his element :p
Soon after Jane also had to put her practice to a halt as a faulty alternator was causing her fuses in her car to blow.
Late evening ,and we are still waiting. Jane seen here feeling the effect of her flu
Due to the lack of lightings , the place almost pitch black at night so ,the oil from the broken transmission was used to fuel the lamps we made ...
which gave decent lighting…don’t you think?
Jane’s car waiting for her alternator transplant..
so’s mine
Our ever so resourceful and multitasking Kevin from www.mycarslowbai.com seen here lending a hand with the jack while having dinner
The wonderful people from Tampin who came over with much needed lighting and also to assist with the gearbox transplant which DriftHouse’s Joe Han had just delivered.
Things got finally done by 11pm . As it was dark , I only manage a couple of straight line runs to test the gearbox. We soon packed up and called it a day.
DAY 2 :Competition
We got to the track early the very next day and got around practicing..
The ‘new’ gearbox worked perfectly and I managed to get a few solid practice runs
Jane was also drifting without any mechanical problems too
Pre qualifying briefing…seen here , Ivan Lau (pony tail, in white), feeling the effects of the night before’s “Party Like a Rockstar” sesssion in the neighbouring state 🙂
Qualifying was a straight forward affair. I only managed to get in, middle of the pack, which I was a bit disappointed with but after what we had gone through I should count my blessings. Jane , however once again narrowly missed top 16 again!!! She shared the same points as the 16th qualifier (Goodyear’s Michael Gan) but her lower second run points gave the advantage to him.Anyway with her flu and all I think she did a terrific job. Jenshen rocked during practice but qualifying jitters rob him of a good run.Lack of experience is the main culprit which will be easily solved given time
TOP 16
Top 16 run was against Mr K from Seremban. I have never gone against him but based on my observations, on his performance in past competitions and also on ones that I had judged, I knew this wasn’t going to be easy.Our runs were really aggressive. While I was leading,there were bit more of body contact than what I am comfortable with .So I made sure I ‘performed’ just as well when it was my turn to follow 🙂 The judges voted in my favour
TOP 8
Going against Tengku Djan is something I’ve always dreaded. I have only gone against him twice , with the last during Formula Drift Singapore ,which he dropped me faster than a bad habit 🙂 Determined to put up a fight,we managed to go through two ‘one more times’
Some how I managed to narrowly win from Djan and advance to top 4
Top 4
To my horror, we ran out of tires!!! My run is coming up next and the only decent pair of tires left was Jane’s used tires that was on her car. I knew it wasn’t enough to go to the finals with but getting through Top 4 was our 1st priority at the moment 🙂 .
My run with privateer Along Rempit had to go through a ‘One more time’ which resulted a win a to him.
Due to a single point difference in my qualifying score the final place on the podium was awarded to Vincent’ terbalik’ Lim. with me in forth
Sharing my 4th placed ‘shower’ with organiser Ngan..
I was happy that we made it this far as a team ,even with all the odds going against us ,but one thing I was really happy about was , my buddy Ivan Lau winning this round thus grabbing the championship for this year. Ivan had a string of bad luck throughout the year and badly needed a boost of confidence. This win certainly helped as Ivan is back to his over confident cocky self !!! 🙂
Of course my thanks also goes to the Tampin locals who were there when we needed them. I hope to give you guys more taxi rides in the future!!
No.4….Got Dish?
Err..the rear’s got to go… 😛
MICCOS Drift Challenge 2009 ,16th August 2009
Since we had withdrew from our role as organisers of the MICCOS Drift Challenge , Ivan Lim from Binter Singapore and I had decided to participate in supporting in the event whom had newly appointed organiser, Feinto-D on the helm.Ariff did not compete in this event as he had gone off to salvage his placings in the GRA event held in Sepang on the same day.
As mentioned earlier ,our withdrawal from the event was due to the absences of safety equipments , like water barrier, tire barrier, cones, fire extinguishers and etc and due to that, the newly appointed organisers had to alter the course to a much smaller course which in turn is a much slower course with much more run off space. This was a wise move as at the edge of the course , there’s a steep downward slope which we fear might cause cars to come barrelling down if they were to veer off the course!!
Binter’s Toyota Chaser was sent to Malaysia earlier for Ariff to work on the handling set up of the car
Due to other commitments, we had missed out the Saturday’s practice,but we arrived early enough on Sunday morning to get enough practice .
Driver’s briefing by the judges Loyai (Team GT-Radial) and Along (Team Toyo).
After briefing ,we were then given another 30 minutes of practice.
As we were in Group C. We had enough time to drop by the cafeteria at Maeps Exhibition Hall D to grab our lunch. It was full of stalls with local flavors.
After lunch break, it was time for qualifying . I had some great practice runs earlier but when it comes to qualifying the weather changed tremendously .As the temperature drop so did my grip level. Due to my lack of experience with the Asymetrics tires, I had trouble adjusting to the tire and totally ruin my runs thus not being able to get into the best 16.
As for Ivan Lim, he was very consistent with his runs and he qualified at 5th place. Since not qualifying, I became his spotter during the tandem battle to help him as he was going against driver’s that he had no experience with.
Unfortunately, the rain came pouring down heavily immediately after the best 16 driver’s briefing. . Due to bad water irrigation on the car park, the track is all flooded so the competition was held up.
It took almost 45 minutes for the rain to stop and all the top 16 drivers were given some runs to get use with the wet surface of the track.
Ivan had to go against with Kevin Rajoo on his 180sx at best 16, with such , which he managed to stick by Kevin and won the round , credit to the great performance of the Goodyear Eagle RS-Sport on his Binter Goodyear Toyota Chaser for the win
At best 8, Ivan had to go against with Tan Tat Wei from Team Bridgestone in his Toyota AE86.A small and tight track , along with wet surface tends to favour the smaller cars, especially when it comes to tandem battles. Both of them had good runs but the judges gave an extra advantage point for Tat Wei for keeping closer to Ivan while following. Though losing out at best 8 ,Ivan did a great job drifting his newly setup Chaser! He was alot more precise and confident while drifting.
Having qualified 5th and losing out on best 8th earned him 5th place overall in this competition. Great job Ivan!
Donut’s Drift Day (3D) version 1: MAEPS 23/8/2009
It’s been a while since we’ve been to a drift session . So , we jumped on the opportunity to join one when Drift House’s Joe Han and James did one last Sunday .Held in MAEPS, Serdang, a total of almost 20 cars took part in this private session which includes season autocrossers, drag racers , circuit racers and radio celebrities.
Despite of me getting my sideskirt broken and Cheaka breaking her gear box (!!!),we had so much fun that only towards the end that I had realised that I had fogotten to take photos of the event. I brought the DSLR but choose to use my camera phone instead. So here are pictures of whoever was left at that time..sorry 
Cheaka’s 180sx suffered a broken 3rd gear early in the session..Barry/Low orange KE70 in the back ground
(L-R)Lim Joe Han (Donut) , Cheaka, Terrence Lim ( Datuk) and Dexter…Three of the guys here are Malaysia’s 1st Gen drifter who are planning to make a come back!!
Marco with his newly accquired Long Champs
Taman Wawasan Drifters with a cool pick up…drifted for a while only though
My poor coupe with a broken sideskirt and dented door…took the picture on the undamaged side
Joe Han and James are planning to make this a monthly event ..so keep a look out for the next one after Hari Raya!!!
FXOpen Challenge@ MIMC Malacca 8th-9th August 2009
Tipped to be the biggest kart track in South East Asia, the Malacca International Motor Circuit played host to the inaugural FXOpen Drift Challenge in Durian Tunggal, Malacca.
Picture taken by ozzmosis
Picture taken by ozzmosis
The Managing Director of MIMC ,Tuan Shaharul B Hj Mohd Ali , someone that I had the pleasure of meeting who is such a charismatic yet humble person. Keep a look out for more good things to happen on this track!
The 1.7 km track with a width of 10 meters promised to be a challenge as the section used for the drift course has a tight entry which is taken in third gear!! .
This track also houses top notched facilities such as shuttered pits, air conditioned briefing rooms and restaurant which were made available to all the 27 participating drifters .
Leading to the day of the event, we attempted find out more about the course and had found a video a drift session they had a couple of weeks earlier.
Armed with that, along with the track lay out with the ideal drift line diagram posted by the organisers of the event, we set off to the track early Saturday morning
The track lay out and optimum line given by the organisers which was disregarded prior to qualifying
Some drifters skipped breakfast just to be there early..
Warna nyata boys all set to begin practice
Jane supervising the Goodyear display while Ejat ‘tumpang G’
Jane…phweet pose
Rudy’s new ride making its first appearence
This is how an engine bay of an over 500WHP monster looks like
Zulfika fixing his fenders after a little mishap while photographer Elli looks on
Top pro drifter Kim Wan, who wasn’t competing, giving his Boostzone team mate some techniques advice
Yokohama’s Ah Heng and crew
Ray improved tremedously…must have been the private lessons he has been receiving
Practice is the most important aspect when it comes to any competition as whatever your learn from it will be applied during the competition. However we were later informed during the pre qualifying briefing, that whatever we did during practice was all wrong, with me in particular with the feint maneuver that I was performing prior to the entry .Having to go straight to qualifying without any warm up or practice for me to try out the next entry technique insisted by the judges, I had to make sure that my ‘winging it’ mode was enough to get me to the best 16th. Thankfully I managed a 9th placing with Jane doing well with a 16th in qualfying. Loyai was totally nailing his runs with ‘text book’ runs which earned him the top qualifier position!!
Being in the last spot in the top sixteen had Jane going against Loyai who was in first. Jane held strong when following Loyai which earn her a 5-5 score but had straighten during her time to lead. I had to go against BoostZone’s Ng Choon Lai, who is one of the nicest person in the drifting scene but is also one of the most ruthless competitor around!! With his beast of a machine and his expectionally high skills, I was in for a fight. I managed to hold my position during while being led by him but unfortunately for Choon Lai , he had veered of track when I was leading !
Ng Choon Lai on the right
Top 8 had me go against Loyai! As most people know, Loyai is a good friend and we always joke about having to tsuiso against each other to settle any whatever arguments we get ourselves into. I found it funny that this time it was for real and Loyai came over to my pit, handing me his handphone, asking me to protest to the juges about us going against each other!! Infact I was still laughing while we were lining up for our runs. Anyway the fight was close and I was awarded the win when Loyai had straighten at the first corner.
Loyai is the good looking one in the red t shirt , the other person is Djan..heehehee
Top 4 had me go against another BoostZone driver,KT Wong. Having one of the nicest AE86 around , KT was really consistent during his practice runs and displayed some nice tsuisoing runs with Ng Choon Lai during the practice run. I had an a slight advantage during my first run against him but was unfortunate to have spun out while recovering while trying to avoid hitting him on the last corner! A silly mistake of being too aggressive which I hope not to repeat!
KT Wong’s nice AE86
The fight for 3rd and 4th, this time around I had to go against another competitior with a’ smallish’ car driven by Derek Lim! He was super fast and had grip at wherever I had none! A one more time was called up and he promptly disposed of me thus taking the final spot on the podium!!!
Derek Lim’s ride…
Final result…
Tan Tat Wei winning top podium
KT Wong, with a deserving second
Derek Lim clinching the final spot on the podium
Me in fourth
I suppose with Jane making it to top 16th and me getting a 4th placing in the finals is not so bad considering what we had to go through; with me having to improvise during qualifying and both of us having to adapt to a tire we were totally new to *. I am sure , both of us and the team , have gained from this experience which we will reap its benefits in the near future!!
(L-R) Mr Law, Tuan Shaharul B Hj Mohd Ali , Jane, Me , Puay Ling and Ejat
Goodyear’s Mr Law and Puay Ling came all the way from KL to watch the competition.!!
*Incidently, this event was our first time using the Goodyear F1 Asymetric tyres. This tyres has been given 5 star ratings in their reviews and we were excited to be given the chance to give them a try. Off the bat, I was impressed with how high the grip level was when it was cold. Unlike the Revspecs which requires to be heated up, the Asymetrics were spot on during my first few laps on the course. With its deep grooves in its thread design, I believe this tire would perform expectionally well in the wet too!! Bear in mind, these tyres were not designed for drifting ,which puts the tires through extreme abuse and tempretures ,something that normal road user will never put the tires through .In that aspect ,the RevSpecs were a lot better as we had trouble adapting to the Asymetric’s characteristics when the tyre and track tempreture went up ,causing a few off road excurtions for both Jane and I. However , given time ,I am sure with a bit of tweaking of the car’s settings, this could be easily be remedied . Having said that, for normal driving with a couple of sprited runs thrown in for good measure, regradless of the weather or condition ,the Asymetrics gets 5 stars from me too!!