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Monthly Archives: May 2009
Please show some respect laa…
The subjective nature of Drifting as a competitive sport makes this sport unique .Unlike other form of motorsport , where speed or time is the main criteria when deciding the winner or when awarding points. Drifting goes beyond that where subjective matters like style , flair and aggression are also key factors which no machine or piece of equipment could quantify or evaluate. This is where the role of the Judge comes in. Though clipping points and drifting lines are easy to for one to see , the Judge has a tough task of how to judge style, flair and aggression. What makes one person’s style better than the other? Why another’s flair is better than the other? Often these aspects of Judging in a drift competition causes a lot of confusion and at times frustration to participants and spectators alike. This is where the importance of a driver’s/drifter’s briefing. Though most Judges look out for basically the same thing, they do however put emphasis on different criteria which will reflect on the points they give. Some give more for aggression but others may stress on flair and style. During the drivers briefing is where you would get an inkling on what the Judge is looking for.
Bombard the Judge with questions. Ask him what is he looking for? Give him scenarios and ask for his judgment based on it. With all that you will get an idea of what the Judge is looking for. So your job is to fulfill that to get maximum points possible.
Tandem or tsusio is where it really hits the fan. Imagine this. A Judge with only one pair of eyes has to scrutinized and evaluate two cars going at each other. Added with the fact ,due to logistics or location , at times the Judges stand is not located at the most ideal location .Most of the time he might not have a good vantage point to see what is going on . To make matter worse, sometimes competitions run till its dark where low light or glare makes visibility is really low. If you think thats tough , how about ; the tandem participants do not drift as close to one another during entry and approach to the first corner as its the only way to not get caught being cut off :p
How in the world could he look at both cars simultaneously ? With situations as such, it should not be surprising if the Judge makes a wrong call. So yes, we as Judges all are capable of making mistakes.
As a competitor, there are two ways you could go about it; 1) Accept the Judge’s decision and haul your ass out of there as soon as possible and sulk in one corner or 2) Protest..
Protest, if allowed , should be done as soon as the judgment has be made: No point making big issue after the next tandem battle has taken place as this will disrupt the flow of competition. All start marshals are equipped with walkies which connects directly to the judge or someone sitting next to the judge. So if you have anything to say , tell it to the start marshal. If you are not satisfied ask for permission to go to the judging stand. Again this is to not disrupt those going on for the next run. Only protest when you have concrete evidence ( Video or track marshal) as witness or really feel strongly against the Judges decision . After presenting your case the final decision falls only on the hands of the Judge’s decision. So its either the Judge accepts it or you have to accept his. Leave immediately to avoid holding the event back or if the Judge agrees at doing another run then go to the start to prepare for another run.
A good example to show a good protest ethic was displayed by Meryvn Mohd of Federal Tyres ,during the last round of MDC last year. He was unclear why my decision of giving the win to his tandem competitor so he requested to come up to the judges both to make an inquiry.
Mervyn’s protest/inquiry Photo taken from http://mohdhelmiphotography.blogspot.com/
He came up in a respected manner and asked. I explained it to him and he thanked me and left. This is a very good example of a proper approach any drifter should take ,not so much for agreeing with the judge’s decision but more to the level of professionalism displayed and the dignity and respect he showed to the judge . Remember ,your actions or behavior you display, will reflect on your sponsors and also more importantly on yourself as a person.
Judges are human too. We are prone to make mistakes like everyone else. Most importantly , these mistakes are not intentional.So please show some respect laaa….
CyberJaya Drift Challenge 16th May 2009
In conjunction with Cyberjaya’s twelve year anniversary , a drift contest organised by Comma motorsport was held at the Cyberjaya Community club on last Saturday.This event was managed by Drift Art which is spear headed by Fyrus , Idris and Oan . Cheaka and I had missed their last two sessions held there , so we thought that we had better arrive early (11.50 am to be exact) for the 3.30 pm free running prior to the official practice and qualifying to familiarized ourselves to it. We promptly went about setting up our pit as soon as we found a suitable spot and went about inspecting the course. Unlike any other tracks that we had competed in, the Community club course consist of a very short straight followed by a wide long corner which leads to a narrow sharp turn followed by a bumpy chicane. This makes it difficult for drifters to be aggressive during tandem battle on the long wide corner as the following car will most likely be cut off by the leading car going into the narrow hair pin turn causing them to straighten.
Due to delays, practice only started at 4.30 which resulted in Cheaka only having six runs on this totally foreign track before having to go for her qualifying run. Due to the nature of the course , the Judge for this competition , Yoong from DCM had set strict standards for the Expert category where a mere straightening of the car anytime during the qualifying run, results in drifter receiving zero points for their run. This added even more pressure on Cheaka. Running on fresh tires rear tires , Jane had trouble adjusting to the high grip level of her Goodyear Revspecs. She straighten during her first qualifying run and luck has it ,that even she nailed all the sections of her next run ,she was confused as to where the finishing line was and had stop drifting before the finishing . This resulted in zeros for both her qualifying run which was a big disappointment to everyone in the team as the score certainly does not reflect her drifting level.
I fared a bit better having a few extra runs after having been asked to check the course out prior to the offical practice and gotten a 99 point run for the first run and a spin of the second run while trying to out do my first attempt.I qualified 2nd highest . Derek lim qualified 1st as he was more consistent with a 95 and a 99 points run.
The top 16 Tandem battle for the expert category started at 9 pm with almost all of the lower qualifying drifters ,who were all fairly playing it safe by leaving lots of room between themselves and the leading cars , advancing to the best 8. This trend continued moving on to the next run.Though not as exciting for the spectators , playing it conservertive was the only way to not get trapped into having your line blocked. My run with Michael Gan went on to a one more time where I made the fatal mistake of being too aggressive while I was trailing which resulted of me straightening when Michael dove into my intended line in the hair pin. Haiyaa….Anyway, Michael Gan was consistent through out the event and deserved the win.
The event ended with Rudy Norman taking first place . Michael Gan second and Me third f0r the expert category
My apologies as we were too busy ‘cam whoring’ to know the results of the Novice category…sorry
Photos from that day…
Our little spot by the track which we used as our pit..
The drift competition management crew from Drift Art..
Lan, Ijat and Rudy Norman cam whoring
Goodyear’s display booth
Ja Ja from Comma Motorsport with a friend..
Lovely Olivia and Mervyn “Nangka Murah” Mohd
Trying to fill up the pocket of the Judge of the day , Yoong ( Red t shirt)
Someone posted a video of the making of a Bollywood Drifting movie which got Burn all excited..seen here Burn singing and dancing in Hindi
Drifting action…my apologies, this is all I took
Angeline and Jane sharing photos taken on her mobile phone
Our tent was really popular that day…:P
Cheaka, En Zuraiman (Goodyear) , I forgot his name (Goodyear) and Angeline (Goodyear) discussing about tire wear on this particular track
Cheaka and her fans
Goofing around before the pre qualifying briefing
Sultan Sulaiman Drifters!!!
Yoong giving out specific details on what he wanted to see during our runs while Seong looks pretty for the camera
Feinto D fans came in all sizes!!!
The drifters and organisers
In my book these people were the heros of the day..(L-R) Vincent Lim, the guy who rolled over his car and still managed to fight on till fourth placing.. Johari Mat Salleh , definitely the crowd favourite with his consistency and super fast run…Me, err…not hero laa..and Along Bukit Jalil, this dude beat a ‘ well known’ drifter who was driving a more powerful machine, on shredded rear tyres!!
Pro Drift boss with Pro Drift drifter Oan
Drift Art big boss , Fyrus ( blue shirt) receiving his token of appreciation
Expert Category winner: 1st Rudy Norman
2nd Michael Gan
3rd Me….Ariff 🙂
I can’t remember what I was doing here but I suppose this is a good picture to end my posting.. 🙂
RESULTS
1st place RUDY NORMAN ( Drift Art)
2nd place MICHAEL GAN ( GOODYEAR)
3rd place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD ( GOODYEAR SYNC OPTIMA)
Hatchiroku’s new shoes
Once you’ve gone black…..
you’ll never go back..
G.R.A Round 1 @ Shah Alam 2nd May 2009
Though finishing embarrassingly 3rd last in my first GRA competition last year, I had so much fun that I vowed to join every single round if they werent any clashes of dates. Last weekend we so happen to be free, so Team Sync Optima/WHAT decided to participate in this round held in the Stadium Car Park Shah Alam. This first round of the GRA series is the inaugural round where a night run is introduced where participants gets to run on a slightly different course from the day . The best of two runs from each stage is added to get the final overall time!! This event was also the first for Jenshen and Cheaka and also for Cheaka and I running with Goodyear tires.
Ian Khong, the man responsible for this event..if you’re wondering , he isn’t the one wearing the skirt 🙂
Driver’ s briefing
Kenneth , Jane and Team Petronas Japan Super Taikyu racer ,Farid Haruman
YS Khong and Cheaka, Some people have Keichi Tsuchiya, I have YS Khong. This racing legend had taught me a lot and inspired me in many ways!!
The novice category run. Expensive high tech timing devices were utilized in the event.
Cheaka , Jenshen and I watched the novice runs under a nice cool shady tree before we got bitten by ‘Assects’…ask Jenshen what are those
Pro category run, Sean Khoo, Yoong and Cheaka waiting for their runs..Yoong was super fast that day..time travel fast!!! 🙂
Me waiting for my run
Jenshen and the Lowyat forumers members…thanks to Kev ( glasses in black) for bringing us dinner 🙂
The evening ended with Jenshen doing a lot better than expected but lack of experienced had caused him to do a few time wasting errors which had robbed him from getting a higher placing. I am confident he will alot better for the following rounds!!
Cheaka got 1st in the open Novice class and also the fastest female award
and I got 2nd fastest in the Pro Rear Wheel Turbo class and 3rd in the Pro OD category
I actually would like to dedicate my win to Mike Ng, whom ironically was my student during the SODA ‘Drift Lesson’ held at Bukit Jalil a week before. Mike being a Autokhana ace had given me a lot of tips on how to prepare and a list of do and don’ts during competition. So I suppose this is a huge pay back for what little I had taught him during our session in Bukit Jalil
Mike Ng, my Autokhana sifu , thanks buddy for teaching this old dog some new tricks 🙂
For more information on GRA please click below
SODA in-RAGE
The nice people from STAR newspaper in the Rage section , did a write up on us and added a nice video of our ” Drift Lesson” in Bukit Jalil on their website…though they got my surname name wrong , they did get my quotes right…which I think is most important!! Here’s the video with Cheaka in it..