Though getting alot of slack lately, Saturday Night Drift by Feinto D is the only place we could weekly drift legally . So please help support this event .Here is a short video I made of the newly laid course of me and Wong Chee Kong…The intro was actually shot during Dount’s Drift Daylast year..with Yoong as the judge and Joe Han (Donut) behind the camera
Check out Feinto D’s website on Saturday Night Drift below
Scheduled to be a 4 round series, the FXOpen Drift Challenge had its first round in the ELITE Track in Subang Jaya.
With the Goodyear series scheduled two weeks later,I didn’t want to risk anything happening to the s13 .So I had opted to use the AE86 for this round. The car clearly had issues ever since I had upgraded the charger but I had no choice but to try to work around it.
To put it in simpler terms, the whole event was a struggle for me . The car was undoubtedly underpowered due to the belt slipping and fraying and that had me having to be at full steam hundred percent of the time to gain enough momentum to just finish the course !To add to that the igniters and electronics started to act up as the day progressed too !!
Jane fared better as she progressively improved on each run. She had perfected her lines and was more aggressive as her confidence grew towards the end of practice day!!
Qualifying was no surprise as I was penalized for lack of entry angle and only managed a 10th placing. Jane qualified 29th place,thus into the best 32.I have to add that her qualifying runs were a pale comparison of what she did during practice!
photo from Drift.com.my
I only managed to go past best 32 against Ah Ngah Tanaka ( Freinto D) but came into a halt at the top 16 against Meryvnn Mohd, Though disappointed ,given the circumstances, I was satisfied with my performance.
photo from Drift.com.my
Jane did a good job giving Derick Lim a run for his money with a One More Time being called. Nevertheless she finally gave in to much relief to some. 🙂
RESULTS
11th Place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD (GOODYEAR SYNC OPTIMA)
29th Place AZRINA JANE ABDULLAH (GOODYEAR SYNC OPTIMA)
FXOpen Drift Challenge Round 2, MIMC Malacca 9th-10th July 2010
Round 2 was proved to be an interesting change from the norm with the additional of a third judge from Belarus, called Hiko. A more challenging start and entry was implemented by him which involves a u turn that leads to a straight right to the initiation point. A feint entry was also implemented for good measure ;)!! This was a welcome change and favored by many as we were already bored with the normal course that we were used to on this track.
photo by Drift.com.my
Unfortunately ,this change had highlighted my cars now apparent weakness ; Grip. No doubt my practice runs were smoked filled but I was basically going no where fast!!I was struggling to keep pace even with lesser powered cars! Even at the straights I was dropped like a bad habit by virtually everyone I followed (hahaha..yes I can laugh about it now) Anyways, we tried our best with what limited resources we had and hope for the best.
photo by DennisFXopen
Jane was initially struggled with the course but after figuring out a different entry line and technique ,she was killing it on every run!
Photo from facebook.credit to the photographer
Qualifying had me spinning during my first run as it started to rain just as I went out. During my second run, with the track being drier, I managed to grab 3rd qualifying spot.Jane did two strong runs that earned her a 24th placing!! Only 25 drifters qualified for this round as many had spun on both runs on this slippery track!!
Picture from facebook.Credi to the photographer
Best 25 was Jane against Burn Lancer. Jane managed to edge Burn off by performing two solid runs and with that she advances to Best 16!!!
Best 16 had Jane go against Mervynn Mohd.Clearly underpowered, Jane, struggled to keep pace but still managed to maintain drift through out. Mervynn had straighten during his lead which caused a ‘One more time” to be called. Unfortunately Jane had straighten during her both runs which had Mervynn advancing! Next time Jane!
Photo from facebook.Credit to the photographer
Qualifying 3rd I had a ‘walk by’ which automatically got me into the best 16.
Best 16 had me go against Lim Kim Wan in his rotary power house!! With grip being my major issue I knew that there was no way I could distance myself from Wan. The only thing I could do is to grin and bear with it and do my best qualifying run I could muster ie Max angle and super close clipping points! With that in mind I initiated in the most extreme angle possible but only to have Wan getting into the inner line! With a transition coming up, Wan had no where to go but into the barrier! The 2nd run had Wan spinning at the rear clipping point which I suspect due to the alignment change caused by the crash.
Best 8 was an interesting battle. I was to go against a certain Exotic Tuner drifter called Ah Sai (thats a deliberate typo..any hokkien speakers here.hahaha) .Anyway to put it briefly, I thought I should have won the 1st battle as while I was leading, he had straighten considerably at the last corner to the finish . Unfortunately the judges can’t see that as the judges stand was too far away from the last corner ( no fault of the ‘usual’ judges) Arguments had happen between the judges where one party placed priority on ‘Distance ‘and the other on the much obvious criteria ‘Angle and Line’ (after all you cant call it drifting if you have no angle and line!!). After 3 ‘One more times’ and an alcohol induced protest,my opponent was given the win
Hopefully things like judges visibility and judging criteria will get sorted out by the next round as this will cause major confusion and might effect how the competition is perceived in the future!
I consider this competition was a good learning experience for us and I will definitely be working on the car’s setup for it to be more competitive and Jane had definitely improved in her tsuiso skills which will see her advancing further in the future~~~
RESULTS
5th Place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD (GOODYEAR SYNC OPTIMA)
29th Place AZRINA JANE ABDULLAH (GOODYEAR SYNC OPTIMA)
The Jabatan Belia dan Sukan WP Drift Challenge was a one day event where official practice would start at 4pm and the competition would continue right through the wee hours of the morning! I have been having issues with the AE86 supercharger, with belts splitting and coming off and such. To make matter worse, the extra rear brake caliper was having the tendency to lock up on its own…oh well.
Jane and I were there by noon to check on the cars and found that I had roughly about 10 runs before having to replace the damaged charger belt to a brand new one. So with a bunch of belts in store we went on to the official practice later that day.
All photos are from www.feintodrifters.com
The thing about belts spliting and fraying is, they tend to loose grip and causes the pulley to slip. When this happens you will begin to experience low boost level or at worse no boost at all. So usually when I feel there a drop of power , I’d know its time to change the belt!
Practice went smoothly with me practicing tandem with Jane mostly throughout the day. Practicing with someone you trust allows you to go all out during entry and with Jane I was able to do that!
Qualifying was held at 8pm and was a straight forward affair without any dramas.I had qualified 4th while Jane qualified 13th! So luck has it that it’s going to be a husband and wife tandem battle. This is the 2nd time that this has happen to us with the first being almost 4 years ago in MITC malacca!!!
Top 16
During my lead Jane had trouble to keep up with my pace and had given me the advantage in the process. During trailing, I had followed her closely but she had dove into the inside line at the front clipping zone causing me to lock up and straightening to avoid hitting her, However her extreme move to the inside cause her to take down a couple of cones down in the process. This was spotted by the judges and was seen as an ‘off course’ thus the win was awarded to me..whew!! I was sweating bullets while waiting for the result 😛
Top 8
My next opponent was Nono with his 180sx. I was able to pull a slight gap during initiation but suddenly there was a huge loss of power!!. I managed to scrape through by clutch kicking all the way to the finish line! We rushed to the pit to find that the charger belt was totally gone. Given only 5 minutes to fix stuff, my mechanic . Kian had decided to remove the alternator belt to make installing the charger belt easier. So I was force to run the next run solely on battery power only.
When trailing , I was able to follow Nono closely and the win was given to me!.
Top 4
Next was Ah Ngah from Feinto D. Driving an almost similar set up AE86 I knew that I will have a hard time round! However during my lead , Ah Ngah had straighten briefly when drifting close to the rear clipping zone thus sealing my win to advance to the finals.
Finals
For the two top spots I had to go against Wan Boss. Being a higher qualifier than me, he led during the first run. I was slightly shallower during entry but was very close to him through out the course. During my turn to lead, we both had similar entry angle but I had managed to distance myself from him. However this wasn’t good enough for the judges for a ‘One More Time’ and the win was given to Wan Boss!
Kudos to the organisers .We certainly had a great time and would be back for more!!
Finals 1st run
Finals 2nd run
RESULT
1st place Wan Boss (Feinto D)
2nd place Ariff Johanis Ahmad(Goodyear Sync Optima)
3rd place Angah Tanaka ( Feinto D)
13th place Azrina Jane Abdullah(Goodyear Sync Optima)
And I thought Malaysia FD 2009 was bad…a hit on the wall during qualifying caused the fuel pump relay to get damaged and I was unable to complete the 2nd run. So a DNQ for me WTF???? Jane wasn’t spare either…but I’m sure she’ll do better with her new setup…Singapore 2011 here we come!!
With my S13 still in the panel beaters after my major screw up in Formula Drift Malaysia, Jane and I decided to take part in the inaugural ACE Drift Challenge in Jebat stadium in Malacca. ACE is a company that specializes in suspension and undercarriage components for drift cars here in Malaysia. They are quiet popular amongst the AE86 and KE70s crowd as they are known to make top notch robust absorbers that could withstand all the abuse drifting could offer 🙂
The course that was set by sole judge, Ah Keat, was the usual ‘R’ Shape with a single rear clipping zone and two front clipping points. What made it different was the line that he wanted us to take; Entering in third gear, we were required to take a angular line towards the rear clipping zone!! To be honest, I was a bit confused about what the judge wanted when my run where I clipped the rear zone (knocking a cone off) and nailing the two front clipping points only earned me an 9th qualifying placing . Unfortunately Jane’s runs , which I thought were good, wasn’t good enough to make it to the top 16.
TOP 16
My first tsuiso run was against Rocker Loh ,in a borrowed Cefiro. I had managed to follow closely the RB25 powered car while trialing and managed to distance myself while leading . With that I got through the best eight.TOP 8
My next opponent was top qualifier Tan Tat Wei. My AE86 was no match to his high powered hatchi but unfortunately he made a fatal mistake of following too closely on this tight course which ended in him rear ending me during the switch over and straightening in the process. With that, I’m in the top 4!!
TOP 4
Top 4 was against me an Zulfikar. Zul was still struggling to get in grips in his newly transplanted SR20 turboed trueno. An uncharacteristic spin by Zul and strong chase run by me ,allowed me advance to the finals.
The finals was me against Derrick Lim. At this point, with the total of six tsusio runs I had, along with the two qualifying runs I was still using the same pair of Goodyear Duraplus tires at the rear. Jane was getting a bit worried if they would last the next couple of runs but after thoroughly inspecting them, we were amazed that they were good enough to go for another dozen of runs!! Most importantly, the grip level stayed consistent throughout. I believe this gave me the advantage against Derrick as I was alot quicker than him during our runs even when I was short of more than 50 horses against his car!!
In the end of the video by eddie88 (www.zakumalaya.com) below , shows the final tandem battle of me against Derrick !
After a disastrous Formula Drift Malaysia last December, it was good to be on the podium again .
RESULTS
1st Place : Ariff Johanis Ahmad (Goodyear Sync Optima)
Five months had past when my S13 is finally ready. With a hefty power up grade and a newly acquired control arms and knuckles, the round 2 of the ACE Dift Challenge seem like the perfect opportunity to test out the car before Formula Drift Singapore 2010, scheduled was 2 weeks later. However, things didnt go as smoothly a planned with an untimely failed LSD and a misaligned knuckle kit that would either cause me to straighten or spin at any given moment.I had barely scraped through qualifying with an 8th placing but got knocked out early by Hong when the s13 veered off course during my lead.
Videos by Nash from Singapore
(www.youtube.com/user/driftonowhere)
Jane wasn’t spared either as she had suddenly developed misfiring issues right during qualifying!
We were glad that we were able to identify the problem and have two weeks to rectify them!
RESULT
9th Place : Ariff Johanis Ahmad (Goodyear Sync Optima)
With our maid having to go for surgery. We had Johanna with us for this round of competition. I was a bit worried as the environment at Afamosa isnt what I would call ideal for a two year old . So Jane and I had took turns looking after her while one of us would go out for practice. It helped also, that Yoong and Swee Kin had brought along their daughter Sze Yun to Malacca too. Swee kin had the daunting task of looking after both of them when we both were out during practice!! Thanks Swee Kin!!
We had taken baby steps to develop the handling department of the S13 since it debut in April and we are glad to say that we are almost there. Our experience during round 2 of FX Open ( report will be done later) had exposed the car’s weakness of its intitial set up.The car handles alot better after making a few adjustments and we reckon we are able to make it even more faster.
I managed to qualify 3rd with two strong runs with Jane making into the top 32 with a 28th placing!!
Having to take care of Johanna and also not having (our photo/videographer,caretaker and friend) Kevin Boey around results in having no drifting photos of the event!! My apologies..
TOP 32
Jane had to go against Kecik of Sultan Sulaiman Team. Jane did a strong trailling run but had straighten during her turn to lead.A One More Time was called. Unfortunately Jane had straighten during both of the runs giving the win to Kecik. I believe with her new power upgrade coming up, she wouldn’t have to struggle so much during her tsusio run.
I had a ‘walk by’ as I qualified 3rd (within the top 8) and went straight into the top 16
Top 16
I had to go against another Sultan Sulaiman team member, Popeye (i swear, thats his name) . During my lead, Popeye had taken the inner line while I was clipping the rear clipping zone thus forcing him to brake and straighten when I dove into the front clipping point. During my trailing run, I followed him as closely as possible and manage to advance to the Top 8
T0p 8
In this round, I had to go against Oliy of Feinto D. Oliy and I have gone against each other before and we are both not shy about exchanging some paintwork (report of Cyberjaya competition later). However it was unfortunate that his NOS powered supercharged AE86 was low on NOS which result in me gaining a huge gap during my turn to lead and him straightening during initiation when I was trailing. I’m into the TOP 4
Top 4
This is the second time I have to go against Tan tat Wei. But this time Tan is packing even more power with a 300bhp++ Nos powered rotary AE86!! Not wanting to take any chances I opt of have a tire change. So I picked up my crew from the starting line and off we went to our pit. This is where things got a bit weird; somewhere during the time my tires were being changed, the NOS switch on my car was switched off. I was in the car the whole time and my crew reckoned that I did it. I strongly doubt it as during my experience of FD Malaysia, I made it a point to never touch it !. Somehow i suspected that my crew had accidentally knocked it off while trying to get out of the cramped caged car. Anyway, I not pissed or anything but I just found it weird. So as you might have guessed, my run with Tan was a disaster. He qualified 1st , so he was first to lead. The starting point is extremely sandy so I am forced to drive half throttle throughout the 1st gear and floor it mid into 2nd. Usually the car would response with a sudden surge of power. However this time nothing happen!! I saw Tan gained 4 cars length infront of me and I knew there was no way of catching him.Upon returning to the starting grid ,only had I realised that the switch was off. With my over zealousness of wanting to gain a gap during my turn to lead, I had entered the rear zone a bit too hot causing me to hit the rear barriers but not losing drift! However this slowed me down tremendously thus allowing Tan to stick close to me!! So that puts an end to my day in this competition
With that I was awarded a third placing and inturn making currently in 1st spot in the overall standing!! With one more round to go, I hope my luck improves for me to win the title..wish me luck 😉
RESULTS
1st Place Ivan Lau (Bridgestone)
2nd Place Tan Tat Wei (Bridgestone)
3rd Place Ariff Johanis Ahmad (Goodyear Sync Optima)
28th Place Azrina Jane Abdullah (Goodyear Sync Optima)
Looking at the recent photos of the Thailand Goodyear International Drift Series, we see that white is no longer the required base color of all Goodyear cars..Thats good news as it is no secret that Jane and I really aren’t really fond of white ..
So looks like its back to black!!! Yipeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!