Category Archives: GT Radial

2013 Final quarter recap

It is  apparent that I have not kept to my promise of being more regular with this blog but there’s always this year..Anyway, due to our extremely busy work commitment , Jane and I were only able to join a handful of events but we are glad to say that we have been fairly successful in representing  our sponsors in particular GT Radial Tyres through their distributors sole here in Malaysia , Heap Joo.

Speed Fest @ Elite Speedway 19th August 2013

Held at Elite Speedway, I was placed in the open class turbo category and had a ball ripping through the course in my road s13. Eventually all good and fun things have to come to an end and I placed 2nd in my category!

Result

Open Class Turbo

2nd Place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD Team GT Radial Sync Optima

 

Federal PRO AM Drift Challenge Round 4 @ Speed City  14th Sept 2013


Round 4 was fairly important round in this championship for me as this was supposed to be the perfect opportunity for me to narrow the gap with the Bullzai who was currently at 1st place. A higher placing than him will allow me the lead or at least an easier fight on the 5th round to be champion. With the newly equipped  GT Radial  Champiro Sx2 , the car felt fast and was perfect and practice went well . Unfortunately during my very last lap of practice , while following a competitor, I had crashed into him when he hit the wall . This caused my front knuckle and tie rod to bend and damaged the front rim during the impact. We managed to change the rod but weren’t able to get the alignment done in time hence having the car wanting to veer to the left and had to qualify in that condition.

During the 1st lap of qualifying , I lost 3rd gear when the gear broke in mid drift. I was about to abort the 2nd run when I decided to just do it in 2nd gear. Thankfully I did decent and managed to qualify 2nd position

Jane did  well in qualifying and managed to get into the top 16 position. Unfortunately  was knocked out early in the best 16 tandem and hence placing 16th in round 4

Tandem went by without much drama and it appear that drifting in 2nd gear with a 4.7 final drive wasn’t much of a problem as I was keeping a close watch of my rev and making sure to feather the throttle as much as I could while drifting. However during the semi finals against Mervyn Mohd , after having a huge lead while leading , Mervyn had crashed into the tire barriers leaving me no room to go but into him. This caused my rear knuckle, suspension, subframe and rims to damage, rendering my car useless to fight the finals.I was extremely disappointed being unable to go against Bullzai in the finals as a win would put me in a better placing for the championship , alas  I was awarded 2nd place and that was how it was.

RESULTS:

2nd Place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD Team GT Radial Sync Optima

16th Place AZRINA JANE AHMAD Team GT Radial Sync Optima

Malaysia Super Lap Battle Rd 1 @ Elite Speedway  29th Sept 2013

Having a free weekend and wanting a refreshing break from drifting ,I decided to join the Malaysia Super Lap Battle held at Elite Speedway. I brought my trusty road S13 for this event, equipped with 245/40/17 GT Radial SX2 on all corners and was placed in the Category 5 class which is for turbo charged full interiored street cars. This category was fiercely contested with me only able to inching into first place at the very last run. Good fun with really good tires , I would say!

RESULT

STREET TURBO CLASS

1st Place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD Team GT RADIAL Sync Optima

 

Federal PRO AM Drift Challenge Round 5 @ Speed City 9th November 2013

The massive crash I had on round 4 had me with running on new front  and rear knuckles. These knuckles are fairly new in the market and needed to be tweaked further which was the agreement I had with the manufacturer as I was to be developed them with my inputs and suggestions. Due to the  unavailability of drift areas and the  temporary closure of Speed City KL, I was unable to test them prior the event and were only able to use them during the final. All I could say was it didn’t really suit my style of drifting and it certainly showed during the whole of his event. Glad to say we have tweaked the  knuckle’s dimensions making them perfect.

Round 5 was also the time when I had the opportunity to test out the GT Radial SX2. Since there were a bunch of left over SX2’s , from 60% to 80% tread left. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to test these tires out in a competition setting.

The heavens opened during qualifying and proved to be fairly tricky to a lot of drifters. The SX2 tyres performed flawlessly on the wet track earning me 2nd position during qualifying. Jane did just as well with a 4th placing qualify result. She had nailed the course perfectly tackling all the points and zones!

Tandem is something she would have to work on as she had to bow out during her best 8 battle against Mervyn.

The impressive thing about the GT Radial SX2 tyres is that the compound used makes the tyres still grippy even as much as 60% thread wear. This makes these tyres stand out against all the other tyres in the market now. However, due to the lack of thread, water dispersion was an issue when there is standing water . During the early part of the tandem battle when the track surface were evenly wet , I had no problem adapting with this issue but during my top 8 battle when there were uneven patches of water on the the drying track, I was met with sudden under steering or over steering whenever I go over them. I struggled throughout and barely beat Bullzai in the top 8 round.  However, I had to succumb to Wan Jo during the top 4 battle as I was all over the place during our fight. I managed to win the 3rd place tandem but  it was not enough for me to improve my overall position and had to be content with my 2nd place overall standing.

RESULTS

3rd Place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD Team GT Radial Sync Optima

7th Place AZRINA JANE ABDULLAH Team GT Radial Sync Optima

FEDERAL PRO AM DRIFT CHALLENGE SERIES 2013 OVERALL RESULT

2nd Place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD Team GT Radial Sync Optima

8th Place AZRINA JANE ABDULLAH Team GT Radial Sync Optima

 

Kementerian Belia dan Sukan Drift Challenge Finals 23rd Nov 2013

Due to the clashing of dates and our work commitments, Jane and I were unable to join any of the KBS Drift event  except for the finals which was held at the Speed City. Having sorted the cars handling and given fresh pairs of GT Radial SX2 tyres to compete with,I felt good going into this event.

I managed to qualify 3rd with Jane getting 9th position. Tandem was a straightforward affair but during the top 4 battle I did a silly mistake and spinning while trailing Mah Lao during our battle, This is the classic case of ;no one’s fault but mine. Mah Lao is a student and a good friend of mine and losing to him has allowed him to not allow me to hear the last of it!

RESULTS

3rd Place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD Team GT RADIAL Sync Optima

9th Place AZRINA JANE ABDULLAH Team GT RADIAL Sync Optima

 

ZEROTOHUNDRED TIME TO ATTACK FINALS 2013 30th Nov 2013

1480743_541629575925603_749697687_nZerotohundred time attack competition  is one of the most talked about timed race event in Malaysia. With competitors from Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, this highly anticipated would be a great way to showcase the GT Radial Champiro SX2 tyres. With the success of the SX2 tires during another time attack event called MegaLap, having podiums on literately ever category, the same would be expected from us in this event1471229_354308214713548_520898163_n

I had 265/35/18 sized SX2 on all four corners on my road going S13 for this event, which surprisingly had no tyre clearance issues .Being a full interiored street car , I was placed in the Street Turbo class .9tro_120413_034320_img_1822

Jane with her drift setup 180sx was running 235/45/17 fronts and 245/40/17 rears for this event was placed in the Time Attack Machine category due to her stripped n caged car.1545666_631474523567595_302504853_n

It rained heavily prior to our run basically rendered our times fairly useless on the slipperly wet surface. However I was developing huge power drop as the turbo manifold had begun to leak. This was apparent by flashes of back fire flames not only from behind the exhaust pipe but also flames coming out from beneath the car engine bay! Being slippery, the lack of power didn’t effect me too much but when the track dried up during our second timed section on top of the worsening leak of the manifold, I had truly suffer from this. On my first hot lap , I was held behind by traffic but on my 2nd lap I had a clear run to get my best time. Unfortunately the manifold gave way at turn 7 forcing me to run without any turbo boost for the rest of the 8 turns. Ironically that run was my fastest allowing me to be placed 3rd fastest in my category!! Jane did fairly well with a 4th placing in her class too.1476038_541765562578671_516791971_n

Results

OPEN STREET TURBO

3rd Place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD TEAM GT RADIAL Sync Optima

TIME ATTACK MACHINE

4th Place AZRINA JANE TEAM GT RADIAL Sync Optima

 

All in all it has been a good year for Jane and I. Being absent from competitive drifting back in 2012 , it is good to be competing again. This year also sees me getting back into time attack events which I hope to eventually lead me back into circuit racing. Thank you for everyone who had supported us through 2013. These results all belongs to you!

Ariff Johanis Ahmad 2013 Results

Federal PRO AM Drift Round 1- 6th Place
Federal PRO AM Drift Round 2- 3rd Place
Federal PRO AM Drift Round 3 – 1st Place
Speed Fest RD2 Time Attack – 2nd Place
Federal PRO AM Drift Round 4- 2nd Place
Malaysia Super Lap Battle Round 1 cat 5- 1st Place
Federal PRO AM Drift Round 5- 3rd Place
Federal PRO AM Championship 2013 Overall – 2nd Place
KBS Drift Challenge Finals- 3rd Place
ZerotoHundred Time To Attack FINAL Street Turbo 2WD- 3rd Place
Azrina Jane Abdullah 2013 Results
Zerotohundred TimeToAttack Final Round 2013 Time Attack Machine category- 4th place
KBS Drift Challenge Final 2013 – 16th place
Formula Drift Pro-Am Malaysia Champioship 2013 – Overall 9th place
Formula Drift Pro-AM Malaysia Round 5 – 7th Place
Formula Drift Pro-AM Malaysia Round 4 – 16th Place
Ultra Racing Gymkhana Challenge ASN 2013 – 1st place for Lady Category
Racepod Round 4 – 8th place
Racepod Round 3 – 13th place
Formula Drift Pro-AM Malaysia Round 3 – 18th Place
Formula Drift Pro-AM Malaysia Round 1 – 22th Place

 

 

2012 recap and 7 months into 2013 in a single post

2012

2012 was a year that we took a hiatus on competitive drifting as we only competed in two events throughout the  year.

BatuPahatBatu Pahat Drift Challenge 2012 where I placed 3rd

KBS 2ndand KBS Drift Challenge Round 1 where I bagged 2nd place..

We did however competed in quiet a number of Gymkhana and Autocross event for the last year

thropiesWe fared decently  considering I have a lot more to learn when it came to gymkhana  driving techniques and  the car used during competition is not considered to be ideal as it was  laggy  and had gearings that is too high for this genre of competition. We had fun neverthelessxtrack2012 also had us teaming up with Petronas Malaysia where we had the opportunity to represent them in promoting their Primax Xtra fuel in a form of a drift ride road tour in  whic had us traveling to 10 different states around Malaysia.

GT radial

Most notably  2012 was the year that had Jane and I brought into the GT Radial tires family. With the support of Heap Joo sdn bhd, the Malaysian Distributor. Jane and I are currently representing and competing with their extremely high performance tires!!

176716_358903897531506_2054350312_oThough having a fairly hectic schedule, we did manage to slot in quiet  a handful of SODA classes.

2013

2013 saw me doing some  work with car manufactures as  an instructor.

miniMini Cooper

protonProton

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Jaguar

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Volkswagon Golf GTI    946206_472917342796827_688295292_nKia 487627_450829161672312_2123563252_nPorsche

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We are also fortunate to be able to work with Bank Muamalat in their road tour event where we gave drift rides to their clients  held in  Selangor, Kelantan and Terengganu . with 3 more other states due soonDSC_5563Mid this year saw us organizing the launching of the GT Radial Champiro SX2 tires in Malaysia

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Dealers and participants were given first hand experience on the tires in car fitted with the GT Radial Champiro SX2

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A gymkhana competition was also held on that day where an almost 100% success rate was achieved when all 11 of  the sponsored SX2 competitors out of 24 drivers competed had all podiumed in their respective classes

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On the circuit, the Megalap competition held on that day , saw  the all the sponsored drivers  either improving on their previous timings or had podium in their respective classes. This is a true testament of how well these tires performs!

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2013 had Jane and I  back into competitive drifting with us participating in the Federal PRO AM Drift series. I have to admit my debut into competition was not exactly spectacular due to some confusion with what the exact criteria the judges were looking for .But I had slowly progressed on the subsequent rounds..

482731_420139681407927_25423525_n I managed to bag a 3rd on round 2

 

922983_449497401805488_1214465079_n and a first in round 3

 

1044009_492286627520934_235876209_nJane has been improving steadily with qualifying as high as 9th amongst the big names and finishing into the top 8’s in recent competitions as the RacePod drift series held in Malacca !

Well I hope this brief insight of what had happened these past 7 months justifies me not  updating this blog  but I do however vow to do weekly updates from now on.

Watch this space !!

 

Conemasters International Gymkhana Series Round 4@ Sepang International Circuit 16th Dec 2012

After clinching 3 consecutive first place finishes at the Conemasters International Gymkhana Series, it would appear that the odds of me winning the final round of this series would be appear pretty slim; not only were the level of  competitors  getting higher but also the fact that Jane and I were across the ocean ,in east Malaysia doing the Petronas X track tour .

We  were only scheduled back on the day after the competition but  by some means or rather , we were able to get a flight back on the day of the competition.The earliest flight out was at 10am and that would give us an estimated time of arrival of  approximately 12pm , factor in the luggage retrieval , custom clearance and transport from the airport to Sepang Circuit, would mean that we could make it to the competition at 1pm. I called Ben Loh, the organiser, and was given the assurance that though the event starts at 9am, timed runs were only done after lunch which was about 2.00pm. This would mean that I wouldn’t have the luxury of having practice and have to dive straight into the competition. With an average of 6 runs,based on the previous rounds, where only a single best run is taken,not being able to practice did not bother me much.

So Jane and I drove our cars and had it parked at Sepang International Circuit before flying off to East Malaysia for the Petronas tour . This will enable us to have the cars there  when were arrive back from the Tour and not waste precious time getting our cars and driving it to Sepang.

photo by Konmei Motorsport

Thankfully everything went on as  planned on the event day ; the flight  arrived in LCCT airport on  time and we got to the track by 12.45pm. To our relief , there were still competitors practicing and we both managed to get enough runs to get the course down.

photo by Hei Snap

The course was fairly easy to remember and basically made full use of the whole paddock parking  5 and 6. So there were alot of straights in between each cone formation which made traction  coming out of them essential to get the best possible time.

 

photo by Ridehunters

This appeared to be fairly easy as  the car seems to hook up rather effortlessly , which was attributed to the 245/40/17  GT Radial Champiro HPY tyres I was using on all four corners! The thing about the HPYs are they tend to work just as well on low tyre temperature which a lot of the Gymkhana drivers where struggling with when using semi’s or other UHP tyres as the wait for their runs usually causes the tyres to cool down below its optimum temperature. Our experience with the HPY tyres were only in drift application and that was  only in the wet which they work exceptionally well  but I was  amazed with its performance during grip events and strongly recommend them  to those shopping for a tyre that does it all!

 

We also managed to test the tyres out in the wet as it started to rain towards the end of the event and as expected the HPY asymmetric tyre design with its superior wet performance had me running 2 secs faster than the other competitors and only towards the end my wet time was beaten merely by 0.4 sec by a competitor running on a 4WD drive train

 

Photo by Hei Snap

Jane was running on fairly similar set up but with a narrower 235/45/17  GT Radial HPY tyres  in front and held 4th position strongly till the end of the event.

 

Photo by Ridehunters

Once again, I had won the another Conemasters International Gymkhana series , which makes it 4 in a row ,a feat I’m fairly proud of as I am considered fairly new in this genre of motorsport and  had the opportunity to go against my peers and ‘sifus’ who I believe are the creme of the crop in the Auto cross/Gymkhana scene.The credit should go to all the those who had guided me and fed me with tips and information to raise my game. Not to forget to Heap Joo and GT Radial for making those kick ass tyres that gave me the upper hand against the other competitors .

Photo by PhotoMeisterCHEAKAJANE :p

RESULTS

RWD Category

1st ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD Team Sync Optima GT Radial

2nd Abdul Hafiz Team WHITELINE

3rd Mickey Teoh

4th Azrina Jane Team Sync Optima GT Radial