At this very moment, with the situation I am forced into , this would be the perfect theme song…for the full effect , dial the volume knob to 11 and enjoy ….
Ssshhhs…I think they ‘re playing my song
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Category Archives: Formula Drift
Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia Part 1: Setup 18th Dec 2009
A month after Thailand, it was now Malaysia’s turn to host the Formula Drift series. Held at Malaysian Agro Exposition Park Serdang,this two day event had a record number of 54 drifters competing with Thailand being the biggest foreign contingent of 12 drifters, followed by three from Hong Kong , two from Indonesia and with New Zealand ,Singapore, Philippines and Japan with one each. As Goodyear is the title sponsor, it is not surprising that this international field were mainly made up of Goodyear drifters, each representing their respective region around SEA .One could only imagine the amount of work it took logistically to cater to these drivers, crews and their machinery .All these is credited to the dynamic management of Goodyear Malaysia most notebly Brenda, Puay Ling and Sham whom all worked around the clock to ensure everything was picture perfect ,which in turn played the major role in making the Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia the best Formula Drift Asia event to date!
All drivers and teams were required to report in at the eve of the event as this is when the final tech inspections are held and a drivers briefing was also shedueled A media conference and a photo session scheduled for all the Goodyear drivers earlier that day too…
We were asked to have our face powered for the photoshoot but Thailand’s Nakaorn wanted the whole works to be done on himself….the cherry flavoured lipstick being applied was his own btw.
After that he wanted his eyebrows trimmed..holding up the line , some of us were not amused!
Michael Gan revealed that makeup experience was akin to being on the dentist chair . Watch how his toes curl as he cringe .
For the record; I didnt have any makeup done partly due to not having enough time which I got Nakorn to thank for:P
Everyone’s amazed at what a little eye makeup could make the colors of Johan’s eyes come out 
Mad Mike shows us how they handle sheep over there….
….as Jane finds our sniggering a bit distracting 
L-R En Nasution Abdul Rahman (MD of Goodyear Malaysia) Richard Fleming( MD of Goodyear ASEAN & Thailand) , Harvey Davis (VP EPSN Star Sports Management) and Marcus Lim (MD Formula Drift Asia)
Me, Cheaka,Yoong, Johan , Michael, Mike and Miki
Miki’s translator ( green t shirt) is a ‘Penang kia’ dude called Ken
Later that day ,the first driver’s briefing was held . This is where we got to meet the judges and find out what they are expecting from us for qualifying the next day.
Daijaro says ” Hi, I’m Daijaro.I’m the speed judge.So that means I will be judging your speed”
Myth #1; Laughing at the judge’s jokes will earn you extra points during qualifying
Ryan Sage, the co founder of Formula Drift was roped in as the Angle judge for this round
Andy Yen, was the Line judge
Part of the requirements of the Tech inspection is to have the competing cars stickered up with door sticker numbers and windscreen banners
Ivan lim shows off his new impact bar…pretty little petite thing , don’t you think?
Tina helping out with Jane’s banner..
It was actually a mad rush for us to get our cars prepared for this event as our cars were held up during its shipment from Thailand. Cheaka and I had suffered some body damage and those had to be tendeded to and I had a few up grades that I wanted done to the car. So, it was a hectic rush we had to go through getting the cars from the body and paint shop and off to the workshop . They had only got done installing and tuning the car on Wednesday and I only had the chance to test the car on the following day. It was only then we had realised that the car had a few gremlins that needed to be iron out, most notably a sticky throttle which isn’t such a good thing to have especially when you will be drifting surrounded by concrete barrier. 
I only got a couple of rounds of testing before deciding to get the problem fixed as it was too dangerous to continue
Ivan Lim managed a number of solid runs with his s13
My tempt crew for the event, Lok and Cheng trying to fix the culprit… 
A lot of cutting a grinding was involved. After thinking it was fixed , it was back to the drift practice area for testing then back to the pit area when the problem arises again. This carried on for numerous of times…
and the problem had gotten worse as the throttle would get stuck at the wide open position..Tonnka’s Larry , far right ( who is one of my sponsor) was there to lend a helping hand. 
We stayed up till 3am testing and trying to fix the problem that night. Until finally we decided to call it quits and see if we could find a replacement the next day…
Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia Roadshow @ 1Utama Mall: 5th-6th Dec 2009
The two day roadshow for the Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia was held at 1 Utama shopping Mall. With Goodyear Tires ,Tyrepac, CIMB and ESPN represented, this roadshow served the purpose of not only promoting the event but also educating the general public about the sport of drifting which suprisingly very few knows about. Tickets were also being sold hence we got to meet quiet a number of drifters and fans !
Johan was all decked out that day….
cause he was the man………
The Prince of drift with the King of style
Dragstar’s Ann came by too…
Its obvious I can’t carry the look like Johan with his glasses…here with Goodyear’s Puay Ling
Michael Gan and I had a little competition of our own…which I lost.
In desperate need of a win I pulled in another opponent….the sequence of shot kinda reflects my performance through out the year….
unpredictable…..
I got whooped!!!
Formula Drift Thailand :7th-8th November 2009
Held at Bangkok’s Wonderworld Park, the inaugural, Goodyear Formula Drift Thailand , was a roaring success , attracting over 7000 spectators during the two day event. This newly built international standard drift track had New Zealand’s Mad Mike and Japan’s Miki Ryuji joining the ranks of an international field made up of Thais, Malaysians ,Singaporeans , Indonesians and a Filipino. The final result had Mad Mike in first , Miki in second and Djan in third.
I personally love going to Thailand. Cheaka and I have business associates there and we are practically there every year. The people there are extremely friendly and polite. The Thais drifters are also no exception. They had impressed me since the hay days of the Malaysian D1 Gran Prix series where we played host to close to a dozen Thai drifters during the final round in Shah Alam. Their drift cars ,set up and equipments were years ahead of us and as expected so were the Thai drift cars that we saw this year. The Thais are really into the sport and take competition very seriously; almost to the point of being mistaken to be unfriendly . Their handwork and dedication to the sport extends to long hours of practice they put into during this competition , even dragging into the wee hours of the morning at the Wonderworld track!!
The results of the Malaysian teams were not as impressive as the last round in Singapore, with the exception of Tengku Djan who got 3rd overall. Michael Gan ( top 32) and Me (top 16) only managed to go so far with Johan and Jane obtaining damages on their cars thus failing to qualify. The Bridgestone Malaysia team had Ivan (top 32) and Tat Wei ( top 16) suffered the same fate as us. It was apparent that the lack of horsepower was the main citeria of our poor performance. With the exception of Tengku Djan and Michael Gan, all of us were running a sub 330 BHP cars. Though sufficient for courses in Malaysia and Singapore, more power is needed for a course such as this . It was basically a short straight that leads to a wide long corner ,where we were required to be hug the the wall throughout the entry and also a huge portion of the first corner. The ideal technique is to intiate the drift via handbraking all to the first rear clipping zone . Power is needed to gain enough velocity on such a short straight which then allows the momentum to slide the car all the way to the rear wall! Rest assured , we will be back next time with more fire power!! 🙂
Upon arrival at the airport on Wednesday…
After wandering aimlessly in the airport, we finally managed to locate our transport . The driver was a friendly bloke with a terrible sense of direction…he once got us lost going to the event place and took almost 3 hours when it was suppose to be a 45min journey . Johan seen here giving a two thumbs rating for the massage chair in the van while Micheal Gan recovers from the experience..
We arrived at the Pullman King Power hotel and met up with Marcus and the Binter crew on the way out to the track. Seen here Micheal Gan is still recovering 
Since we were free that day we decided to tag along with Ivan Lim and Phope and check out Mike Whiddet who had gearbox issues at that time
Phope telling us a typical Thai joke…
It took a while for the Kiwis to get it though …(L-R)Darren, Mike, Mr Cook and Mr Whiddet
We were told that there was a Drift Kart joint nearby , so we decided to check it out!
Never realised before but; I wonder why the person running the place decided to rest his neck on my thumb… ???
Getting the Kart sideways was almost as fun as the real thing..
That night Phope took us out to check out some local grub…spicy
We went through such an ordeal while shipping our car out of Malaysia that we so glad to see the car arriving in one piece in Thailand
Registration…
A few of Thailand’s drift monsters …..
Philipine’s David Feliciano’s drift car decked out in cool Rota rims
A few of the 50 race queens Goodyear had hired for the event …
Rumour has it that there are two males in this photo….I think Pop doesnt know it ( then again , maybe he does:))
The results of getting a bit too close to the rear wall ……
I’m not trying to look cool here but just trying decide where to put my hands…
Eh…where’s Cheaka’s left hand is at????!!
Micheal Gan polishing his photo taking skills
Johan dreaming of having a massage chair of his own…
Maxxis’s Tumz and his girlfriend who will be competiting in the Malaysian Formula Drift.
Drivers briefing
Thats all the photos I have as from then onwards we were to busy drifting …..
Competing in Thailand was a total new experience that proved to be valuable to us. From logistic wise, equipment to team management , everything was put to a straining test where all its flaws and weaknesses were apparent .All these however have been noted and necessary changes have been made alas we are glad to say that we will be more prepared the next time around.
Formula Drift Singapore 2009 ; Behind the scene and left over photos
As promised, for behind the scene and left over photos from Formula D Singapore 2009 (and also to find out why Leong is wearing a cheeky smirk on his face) please check the forum section or click HERE
Formula Drift Singapore 4th-5th July 2009
DAY 1
We decided to leave to Singapore a day earlier,as we had to be at the track at 12pm the next day and we wanted to settle some logistics matters and meet a few people before that.. We managed to timed everything to perfection but was held back by the decal shop fiasco which I shall not elaborate here. We finally got to Singapore at 8pm which was already too late to do anything . So we decided to check in , grab something to eat and call it a night..
Leong here ‘relaxing’ his eyes preparing for what is coming ahead the next few days
DAY 2
We arrived at the track at 10am. The course looked intimidating damn scary, especially with the concrete walls lining the entrance of the track. What worried me the most was the man hole cover that causes cars to unsettle mid way through the first outer clipping point. Ivan Lim , Cheaka and I all had our cars pointing straight mid drift during the media promo day, which had us plowing straight through the cones lining the outer track . Those cones are now being replaced by concrete walls which I am certain would not be as forgiving ..
Concrete
concrete
and more concrete
The stunt show rehearsal ,scheduled today,was canceled due to a few drivers involved were not being able to arrive today. So instead ,we did our drift taxi ride practice. To keep it fair to the other drifters, we were no allowed to practice on the full course and and not use the official starting point ,we were instructed to begin our runs mid way through the first corner. As the organizers and sponsors were watching us practice, so it was also a rehearsal as they would hate for any unpleasant surprises to happen tomorrow.
Mattie Griffin, ranked 5th in the World Freestyle StreetBike , making his freestyling tricks looked easy. A real nice dude that stays away from the ‘red stuff’ in his nasi lemak
Cheaka , Yoong , Sean and I only got about 4 runs each before it started to rain heavily. So we decided to call it quits. It was about that time the Goodyear Thai drivers arrived. We helped them unload and just hung out where I got the chance to brush up on my Thai-glish.
Pop (blue t shirt with yellow stripes) checking out Nakorn’s Soarer being unloaded
Pop’s ‘SR20 powered Rx8 faced’ Mx5!! Both of the Thai drifters cars were only recently completed. It was unfortunate they suffered mechanical trouble throughout the weekend as they were certainly a force to reckon with in Singapore this year!
Thai pop star looking , Nakorn (yellow T shirt) checking out the installation of the side impact bar on his Soarer.
DAY 3
Media day!!! We arrived at the track at 8am and promptly got suited up. All the drivers representing Goodyear were present for the press conference .Thailand , Malaysia , Singapore and Hong Kong were all represented!
Press conference with all the Goodyear drivers present , with ‘the voice of Formula D’ Jarrod DeAnda at the helm
Formula D judges , Tony Angelo and Andy Yen explaining their new judging format which was a lot different from what we are used to
Err yes the Goodyear logo will be bigger next time Mr Law…sorry 🙂
. We were then brought out to the track and gave the media taxi rides out on the track..
Jane with TV host Jade who caused a stir because of the massive chrome sneakers she wore that day…she later told us it was the wardrobe department’s fault 🙂
Marcus taking the drivers attendance before laying down the rules
Later that day we had our first drivers briefing conducted by Marcus himself. This was followed by a track walkbout with Pit Crew’s Jason
Jason assuring us that the concrete wall this year is softer than last year’s…heeheehee
It was all fine a till I arrived back to the pits. Leong comes up to me and says ” Bro, I got bad news!!” The first thought that went through my mind was that I have some mechanical trouble or even worse ,blown my engine again. He then informed me that they had allocated the wrong tires to me!!! This came to be a big blow as I had used what little tires that we brought over from Malaysia and the tires that we got for Cheaka which were too narrow ( width) for me.It is not uncommon for stuff like this to happen on an event as large as this ; tyres were being allocated and distributed to all the Goodyear drivers and a minor glitch such as this is bound to happen. Marcus, bless his soul, tried his best to resolve the situation by getting Yoong to agree to give half of his allocation to me ( Thanks Yoong ) but with stunt shows , taxi rides and practice runs coming ahead, I knew they were not enough. So I decided to use Cheaka tires instead ..Hell, I made it through last year with three cylinder, I reckon running on narrow rears won’t be much of a trouble especially since they were Goodyear RevSpecs, which is known to be grippier when comparing with other brands of the same tyre width . However, it will a bit difficult if it rained as the physical size and width does play an important role when it comes to grip in the wet . I just brushed the thought off and was glad the engine is still running fine!
Our loyal crew during our day-end meeting (L-R) Melissa(black t shirt) , Jenshen (red), and Leong (black t shirt). We owe alot to them for what they had done for us throughout the weekend
DAY 4
Official practice day.
(L-R) Phoebe (Colin’s wife), me with Calius, Cheaka, and Sean. Holding Caius ( Phoebe & Colin’s baby) made me miss Johanna even more. Hopefully we could bring her to the events when she gets older
We were all nervous about the concrete barrier that lined both the outer clipping points and the fact that the man hole cover that tend to throw our cars out of line didn’t help either.Though the reduced grip level was apparent , I got used to running on Cheaka’s tyres after a couple of runs.Both of us took conservative lines during our runs and we managed to keep our cars in one piece for the first practice session. Cheaka was nailing all her runs and managed to impress the Formula D judges Andy Yen and Tony Angelo!
Drivers parade with VIPs in attendance
We did two stunt shows per day where we all took turns ‘challanging’ Mattie on his bike ..Yoong definately stole the show with his rodeo move!!!
The stunt show drivers and rider
On practice session two it began to rain!! Practice was held up for a moment in order for the track to dry up.When they finally did let us off on the track , it was only partially dried up with wet patches dotting around the course. This made the grip level varied through out the course .The tires on my car performed exceptionally well but I had to dramatically change my driving style to suit the slippery condition. During this session ,Cheaka was unlucky as she drifted over one of those slippery wet patches which caused her to spin and rear end on to the concrete wall at the second rear clipping zone .To stiffen Cheaka’s car, besides the roll cage, we had mounted a brace at the rear of the car which connects the rear chassis to the rear suspension tower. The force of the impact of the crash had caused the brace to move the tower thus causing her right rear absorbers and rear wheel knuckle .to move almost and inch forward!! She was struggling with the car throughout the session after the incident! Upon requesting, I was allowed to test drive her car found that the car was experiencing under steer each time it was drifted to the left. As we didn’t have the right tools to straighten out the chassis and tower neither did we want to risk adjusting the rear caster and making it worse, I suggested that she just increase the rear tire pressure to reduce the understeer and try to adapt to it.
NHK interviewing Jane
Many Singaporeans in attendance were interested in the sport and many were eager to get involved. With Binter and Formula Drift Holdings continuing paving the path, I’m sure we will be getting more Singaporeans participating next year!!
Day 5
The nice people from TyrePac providing their tyre changing services
Competition day!! We were all buzzing from excitement as this is the day that we were waiting for!! 37 drifters top drifters from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong kong, China and Indonesia going head to head against each other!
Practice was good and I basically went 7/10 after seeing Ivan Lau’s crash on his first run. Thankfully Ivan managed to get his car fixed in time for qualifying. Qualifying was a straight forward affair. I did what I thought was one of my best run on the track but was really disappointed when informed that I had 74.5 points on my run. I got out of the car , took off my helmet and gloves of and just sat on the curb . Back in Malaysia with a score like that you might not even make it to top 16. However , amazingly my score remained highest till it was qualifying round 2!! By the end of round 2, my score was ranked third highest behind Tat Wei and Djan!
It was a huge shock to find out that Ivan Lim failed to qualify. Based on his practice runs ,he was definitely one of the favorites for the weekend. However, situation like this do happen and it was unfortunate to have happened to someone who is a good as Ivan. I am sure his luck would be better for the up coming rounds!!
Cheaka did well ,inspite of her damaged rear!!She managed to wrestle the car to an amazing 17th place qualifying
Goodyear autograph signing session
The guys from Drift Garage. We wish we could have spent more time with them but I’m sure the oppurtiunity will arise soon 🙂
The pretty girls I didn’t get to ‘flip’…they volunteered to be our co drivers during the ‘Z in the box ‘ ( renamed from Flip the Bit*h for obvious reason) session we had the day before
TANDEM BATTLE
I was paired of with Shah from Singapore. An aggressive drifter which I know will be a tough fight during tsuiso. Since I qualified 3rd ,my battle with Shah would be the 7th pairing. So I decided to chill out in the car and poke fun at Jenshen (RyuK1d) who was my umbrella boy :). To my horror it started to rain!!!! Aww man!! Images of me spinning out during entry started to flash in my head!!! They had to stop the tandem battle to wait for the rain to stop. When the rain begin to ease off a bit,they sent us out in a group to help dissipate any standing water on the track. The track however appeared to be alot wetter than the day before! I love the wet and I have done numerous tandem battles in the wet but never on my current setup before! I drove out on the track and tired to initiate at my normal speed and aggression but only to have spun at the entry!! Thankfully I managed to avoid the wall.. That run definitely didn’t do much for nerves!
Watching Ivan Lau and Zee’s run didn’t help either. These are the two drivers that I looked up to and was shocked to witness the incident that wiped both of these drivers out! Ivan totaled the rear of his car trying to avoid Zee’s spin. Zee is one of Malaysia’s top drifter and he hardly spins!! I am unsure what was the ruling on the incident but both of the drivers were put out of contention
All I could do was grit my teeth and hum the theme song to ‘Barney’ to calm my nerves….
Not long after it was soon my turn to step up to the plate.I did my run with Shah as conservative as possible and managed to advance to the next round
Top 8 was against another top Singaporean drifter Jensen Tan. Jensen Tan is an animal of an opponent. With his circuit racing experience I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I somehow managed to do both runs without any major corrections and advanced to top 4.
Top 4 was against Tengku Djan.Being an owner of hachiroukus and I know what they are capable of in the wet. So we lined up at the start, both of left the line together but as soon as Djan floored the throttle I struggled to get grip. He was three cars ahead of me when we reached the entry and which was maintained all the way to the finish
At the lead I knew I had to go all out , I entered the first corner as fast as I could but I gingerly dumped the clutch when it came to initiation! To my suprise the car didn’t respond as I expected and just went straight. I dumped again ,harder this time, and managed to stick the tail out. But this has caused me to go slightly off line when suddenly the front tires just washed off and made me spin!!
I was filled with mixed emotion, I was sad I was not able to put up a good fight with Djan but then I was happy to at least be able to share the podium with him. Team mate Johan Norman managed to breeze his way to the finals and and bagged 2nd spot, which was a fantastic for Goodyear!!
Djan laughing when I told him that the ‘Thumbs Up’ sign meant Goodyear!!
Djan 1st
2nd Johan Norman
3rd Me..yipeeee
It was a pleasure to have met Tony Angelo and Jarrod DeAnda. Tony even volunteered to help fix Jane’s car after her crash!!
Post race press conference
Andy Yen was the one who encouraged me to qualify last year despite of my mechanical problems and it made me more deterimine this year especially when things didn’t go my way through out the weekend! Thanks Andy ..Go Go Corollas!!!
The Friends (Crew)
Jenshen Khor (Ryk1d) took off from work to help out. He was there whenever we needed him; from getting soapy water for the decals to his picture taking duties ( the majority of the pictures we see here) He somehow manage to make everyone happy and ‘GAY’ whenever he was around. Thanks buddy, We won’t forget this
Melissa Fong. She flew down from Malaysia and was with us through out. She was our spotter during our practice runs and made sure we were never hungry nor thirsty through out the day. She got burnt badly from standing out in the sun too long . We both can’t thank her enough for what she has done for us!!
Ah Leong , a friend and owner of WHAT Motorworks, the guy I throw tantrums at and blame whenever there’s no one else for me to blame. I’m glad the car performed flawlessly through out the weekend. Sure we had teething problems the whole of last year but I am sure it is all behind us.Thanks for staying up all night back at the workshop and eating the fried rice and one fried egg I tapaued for us.
We would like to thank
Goodyear Malaysia
Goodyear Singapore
Goodyear Thailand
Binter Pte Ltd
We will be posting all the pictures in the Forum section once I get them sorted out…keep a look out for them!!