Category Archives: AutoCross

The conclusion of GAS Gymkhana Series 2016! Bring on 2017!

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GAS Gymkhana series 2016 held its final round of the series on the 18th December 2016.Using MAEPS ,Mardi Serdang as the venue for all its 5 rounds, GAS which is on its 2nd year of running is proud to be instrumental in reviving the sport of Gymkhana in Malaysia, with other organisers now running similar events with many using GAS as the template for their events for rules n regulations and also for categories.

FB_IMG_1484193335898This is commendable considering that this a self funded event with a very small team!

However, we attribute our success to the undying support the Gymkhana community had given us.Words of encourgements n valueble advice were used to guide us throughout this past 2 years! FB_IMG_1484193365442We were privilged to have Gymkhana celebrities such as Mitch Chong who was our course judge for the past couple of events ,lending a hand and also Mickey Teoh in helping us promoting our humble event!

FB_IMG_1484193350846And of course, those who participated in our events played an important role in making this event a success

FB_IMG_1484193359167Participants like Abdul Halim who had not missed a single GAS event every since we started! This is a participant that has to travel 8 hours to just participate as he resides in Kuala Terengganu! We are most fortunate to have him in our events!FB_IMG_1484193425931

  • The beauty of Gymkhana, with the multiple categories being contested, is the mixture of cars contesting; not only there are varieties in drive trains but also the state of build! From the stock show room standard to the stripped out purpose built cars can be seen competing!FB_IMG_1484193411489We have participants such as Mr Chow, in his stock standard Proton Wira , who placed 2nd in the Front Wheel Drive Road Legal Category,FB_IMG_1484193392337And we have En Fadly Hashim in his purposed built race Proton Satria!
  • The following are some shots taken during Round 5!FB_IMG_1484193437966FB_IMG_1484193322891FB_IMG_1484193416579FB_IMG_1484205487238FB_IMG_1484205507991FB_IMG_1484205529422Please check out GAS Gymkhana Facebook page at www.facebook.com/GymkhanaAutoXSeries/ for more pics and updates

GAS Gymkhana Series 2016

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GAS , which is the abreviation for Gymkhana Autocross Series, started on 2013 in conjunction with the launching of the GT Radial Champiro SX 2 in Sepang. A one day event which saw 30 participants competing in this inaugural event. With the glut of other gymkhana events following its wake that year, the management decided to take a hiatus and diverted it’s effort to more private gymkhana events mainly for car clubs. However, with the frequency of Gymkhana event dwindling the following year to the point where there were not a single event in the year 2014. Sync Optima had decided to take the helm and try to revive the sport in 2015 by running three events which proved to be successful. The formula of a self funded event , amongst the tight knit of competitors proved to be the way to go in these trying times. So much so that in 2016 , it was decided to run a 5 series competition which will end on the 18th Dec 2016! The following are the posters of the past eventsphotogrid_1458717884776photogrid_1467356555145photogrid_1475032931047photogrid_1479899969611_20161123194943488

Please check out GAS Gymkhana facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/GymkhanaAutoXSeries/

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

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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

 

GRA round 2 @ Bukit Jalil Stadium Car Park B 17th June 2012

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Photo by Pohkinz Chu

Like   Formula 1 to racing or D1 Gran Prix  to drifting ,Ian Khong’s GRA events has been long regarded as the pinnacle of Autocross/Gymkhana event in Malaysia. Paving the way since 2005, GRA had set the standard in this  genre of motorsport with their state of the art timing devices and their real time wi-fi broadcasting time sheets to their professional crew, officials and challenging course set up.

photo by Extreme Fotowerkz

I am proud to say  that Jane and I was introduced to autocrossing/gymkhana when we joined our first GRA event in 2009 and though it was humbling experience, to me to at least, we were hooked!

Photo by Pohkinz Chu

The following years our involvement in the sport  dwindle due to clashing of dates of drift events/competitions  and only now we were able to find time to participate.

Photo by Pohkinz Chu

Round 2 of the GRA 2012 series was held at Bukit Jalil Stadium car park, known for its sandy surface we both knew that gaining  traction was essential to clock a good time for this course.

Ian had created  a fairly huge course for this round which made full use of  the whole of car park B space so it was obvious  speed  woulds also plays an important role which will amount to nothing if the rear tires does not hook up.

Our  category was scheduled to begin at mid day which was fortunate as this  gave us ample time to study the  course   and most importantly  catch up with old friends we had not seen for a while.

photo by Extreme Fotowerkz

Before we knew it , it was already time for our category to begin . As I was warming the car up and doing some shift light rev limit adjustment, disaster struck. Well  I wont get into it in detail( Click on “HERE” to read about it) .

 

Basically I had my oil filter come undone which resulted in oil engine oil spilling out of the engine onto the tarmac. This cause me to missed 2 timed runs while waiting for my mechanic to come with the engine oil and ‘correct’ filter.

With only 4 runs left, I totally screwed the first run and managed to only do a couple of decent runs which got me a 6th in my category. I doubt  I would have done any better even with any additional run given as the car did not feel as sharp after a few adjustments I had made prior to this event. The car was understeering into the corners and wheel spinning excessively out of them. Having those ahead of my standing with similar times showed that I was not the only one suffering.

Photo by Pohkinz Chu

The same goes for Jane whom, finished 8th, who was complaining the lack of traction her car had through out the course. Jane however did win the fastest female award .

Photo by Patrick Photograph

As it was my birthday a couple days before, I was pleasantly surprised to have given a birthday song treatment and the fastest birthday boy trophy for this event.

Despite our shortcomings, Jane and I both , as always had a good time and we both vow to come back for the next round !!

RESULTS

Class OD

6th Place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD Team Sync Optima

8th Place AZRINA JANE ABDULLAH Team Sync Optima

Fastest Female Award: AZRINA JANE ABDULLAH

 

 

Conemasters International Gymkhana Challenge @ Sepang International Circuit 20th May 2012

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Most of you guys were wondering; what had happened to me during the Malaysian leg of the Formula Drift Asia. I didn’t compete nor did I turn up for any of the three days it was held on. My sponsorship for the event did not go through making me unable to join. I was disappointed as  this is the first time I have not competed in this prestigious drift event.As the reason for me not making my appearance to the event ;Drifting is a great spectators sport but I make a lousy spectator so instead I had spent time preparing my car and  joined  the Conemasters series held in conjunction with ZTH’s Time to Attack event.

Having done 2 other autokhana/gymkhana events prior to this, I had a rough idea what needs to be done to  the S13, Blackie, and had spent abit of time prior to the event, tweeking the car’s set up. Thanks to Kian for working  on the car  the whole day ,only to see me coming back the next day to do more adjustments.  The car is far from perfect but it handles a lot better now than before

I arrived at Sepang, bright and  a bit too early that day as the organisers  were still in the process of setting up the course . Further more I was the only competitor there as no one had arrived yet..

However ,the organiser , Ben Lo being the  kind soul he was , took the trouble  to entertain me and also brought me around the course while I waited for the rest to arrive.

Soon  the participants slowly  made their appearance and we were  then allowed to go out on our practice laps.

 

Conemasters have a  different way of running their events where participants have an unlimited amount of practice runs within the given time as compared to  single practice runs by other organisers.

Our timed runs also worked the same, where we are divided into our respective categories  and were given unlimited runs within the time to each category.This gave the participants ample  time to experiment and improve on our runs !

Being divided into different categories with its own time allocations gave us time to hang out, relax…

goof around….

and also enjoy the side activities ..:)

However, it was all business when it was time to compete. Most notably were the AWD category where we see their times going down after each successive run!

The cool thing I like about autocrosser are they are always willing to share and help other competitors, two of the participants who help me the most were also my competitors fighting in the same category, Hafiz and Mickey which ended up sharing the podium with me!!

It goes without saying that  I really did enjoy myself and was pleasantly  surprised when I clocked the fastest time in the Rear Wheel Drive Category and 2nd fastest overall.

And the icing on the cake was the swag I had gotten for being champion; A car stereo player from Clarion, Shoes from DC, Motor Oil from Martini racing and vouchers and coupons from other sponsors!!

Many thanks to  Ben lo and the crew of Conemasters!!

RESULTS

RWD category

1st   Ariff Johanis Ahmad Sync Optima

2nd  Abdul Hafiz Salleh

3rd  Mickey Teoh

Overall

1st Mitch Chong Strawberry Fields

2nd Ariff Johanis Ahmad Sync Optima

3rd Mike Ng

Ultra Racing Labour Day Gymkhana @ Mines 1/5/2012

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As our weekends are always filled, we were glad that Labour Day holiday fell on the middle of the week as Jeet Singh from Wheelspin motorsport had planned a Gymkhana event on that day.

The Ultra Racing Labour Day Gymkhana was held at a fairly tight  parking space at the Mines convention center in conjunction to some motor  show being held there.

Jane was not able to make it on that day , so I got Terence Lim to join the event and also Lawrence to hang out with.

Like any porno actress/actor, Jeet Singh , the organiser, loves his toys,motorised kind may I add. For this event he brought out a cool shifter Kart with absorbers and springs! A rally Kart I was told it was and Jeet did a couple of laps in it

As the course was fairly tight , having a smaller car gave you the added advantage and I would help tremendously if your handbrake work , especially for those tight U-turns and donuts.

Photo by Hei Najdi

Terence , unfortunately had issues with his handbrake and suffered the whole day with his Putra.

 

One of the added attraction of the event was the inclusion of bikes in the gymkhana, a huge number of Motards and MX bikes attended the event and also a handful of Pit bikes made their appearance at the end of the day

The bikes had no problem negotiating through the course and did better times than the cars , which wasn’t surprising as to how tight the course was.

Photo by Hei Nadji

Believing in taking baby steps, I did a few minor changes in the Blackie’s setup since the Race of Champions . Though not perfect, the changes made was a huge improvement since its last outing .

Though not the fastest  overall , I managed to win in the RWD open category and 2nd in the 1 class Open category.

Which I credited to the tips given to me by Terence Lim and also the videos took by Lawrence helped a great deal .Thanks guys!!

RESULTS

Champion Open RWD Category   ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD

2nd  Class 1 Open Category           ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD