Category Archives: Autokhana

Grass Racing Autosports Championship Finale ,Putrajaya 18th Oct 2009

Fresh from the Stardrift Finals , Jane , Jensen and I made our way to another finals , this time the GRA’s Round 4. Held at the huge parking lot besides the Palace of Justice, Putrajaya, this event had a record number of participants of over 6o people!!!. .

Though not impossible , I knew it was difficult for me to be able to get into the top 3, on the overall standing having missed a round in this 4 round series. However , with me doing two ‘wrong courses ‘ along with a corrected run ( where I redid a section where I made a mistake while the time is still running) and a safe run had me plummeting down the score board ,out of contention.

With that being said; Jane and Jenshen killed it at Putrajaya with Jane winning best female and bagging a placing in the Novice OD for 2009 and Jenshen for placing 2nd in Novice OD for this round and 4th for OD overall

Yoong proved to be unstoppable again by posting 2nd fastest time of the day. He settled with 2nd behind Andy Kow in the final overall scores but who know what the outcome will be if he had not missed the 2nd round .

Two drifters made their appearence with in this event too, Derek Lim and Mervyn ‘Nangka Murah’ Mohd with Mervyn placing 1st for novice OD ( i think :)) for this round!!

Anyway, here are some pics from that day

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GRA Round 3 @ Sepang 16th August 2009 ; Goodyear Asymetric on the podium!!

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Since we withdrew from our role as the drift competition organiser for the MICCOS event. I had decided to participate in GRA’s round 3 and try to salvage whatever position I had since I had missed GRA round 2 due to the clashing of dates of Formula D Singapore. In round 1, I was running 2nd in Pro OD class and I hope to get a least a top 5 by the end of the series.

I have always enjoyed the GRA competition as not only the experience gained from entering such an event has help me to improve as a driver but also because the event is so well organised , kudos to Mr and Mrs Ian Khong!!

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Mr and Mrs Ian Khong and Mr Tang MAM steward

The other competitors competing also make up the reason why its such a joy to be part of this Auto cross event! With Top pros such as Ivan Khong , Andy Kow, Mike Ng and Mickey Teoh ,all willing to share their experience and are extremely generous with tips and advise on improving your runs!!

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Two of my sifus; Mike Ng and Mickey Teoh

This round is said to be the fastest out of the series , with cars hitting in access of 160km/h on the straights. A total of over 60 participants made out of Pro and Beginner categories
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Lim Joe Han with his V8 Cefrio winning fastest FR NA class and the Bling bling award!!

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Joe Han showing us his is slim enough to fit under the car’s undercarriage without the aid of a jack dscn2184

Tina showing us her bolting skills 🙂

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Yoong’s run were extremely clean and fast!!! He was running on a killer combo of RS sports in the front and rear..thanks for the tips bro..

As usual Yoong was super fast that day clinching the fastest overall time and 1st place in Pro OD with almost 3 seconds ahead from 2nd fastest Andy Kow with me trailing Andy by a hair below 1 sec!!

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Results were posted after each run dscn2237

Yoong practicing his pose to the camera when recieving his 1st place trophy during the award ceremony dscn2245

The Eco Coat girls dscn2307

Yoong 1st!!! dscn2315

Andy Kow recieves 2nd dscn2304

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Ivan Khong in 4th

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The S13 which I was competing in for this event was fresh from FxOpen event we entered the week before. Running on Eagel Rs sport in front and the Eagle F1 Asymetric in the rear, I was fairly confident that this set up would be perform well for a competition of this genre as tyre tempreture would not be as high as it is as compared to drifting. This is in regards with the Asymetrics which I felt , behaved a lot differently from the normal RevSpec we usually run behind ! What I really was impressed with was its low tempreture performance which I think would come as a bonus here in GRA. Looking at our used Asymetrics we had from the Malacca event, I had noticed that tire wear was more evident on the inner side of the tire, a clear sign of the soft wall technology these tyres had incorporated in its design. It was then apparent that, due to inexperience , we were running too low of a pressure thinking that it will give us more grip. So I decided to run on a slightly higher pressure and see how it performed. dscn2341

The tyres performed execptionally well, worthy of its 5 star ratings it had received in reviews. So much so that I had not only placed 3rd fastest in the OD catagory but also 3rd overall!!!This I believe is the first podium finish for Goodyear Eagel F1 Asymetric in a competition in Malaysia!!!

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Yipeeeeeee

GRA All-Stars Gymkhana Series 1: AFOS Sepang 31 May 2009

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After having the hang of Autocrossing, we were introduced to the confusing world of Gymkhana (pronounced [ jim-kah-nuh])

Derived from a Hindi word, this Indian term is used to describe a sport that test the skills of competitors in various meets and obstacles. Unlike Autocross which is essentially a straight forward timed handling competition similar to rally racing done in a smaller area, the sport of Gymkhana includes stuff like reverse slaloms, side parking , reverse entry and anything that requires the car to go in reverse or the usage of your side and rear mirrors! For the many years I have been involved in motorsports, never had I ever gone in the opposite direction as fast as I could . Alas my performance on that day certainly did not in any way attempt to hide this fact.

Held at the paddock area in SIC in conjunction of the Asian Festival of Speed , head honcho of Grass Racing Autosports, Ian Khong designed a course which certainly test the skills of the competitors, with a fair share of slaloms , donuts and figure eights and half of them done in syncro crunching reverse! Even though the organisers had insisted that this was just a fun event, the competitors were not detered from going all out that day ;with the regulars taking top honours and most notably Yoong clocking the fastest time of the day and Cheaka beating me by a whole second!! She placed 4th and I took 5th in the OD category.

The following are the photos Cheaka and I took that day

G.R.A Round 1 @ Shah Alam 2nd May 2009

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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.

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Ian Khong, the man responsible for this event..if you’re wondering , he isn’t the one wearing the skirt 🙂

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Driver’ s briefing

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Kenneth , Jane and Team Petronas Japan Super Taikyu racer ,Farid Haruman

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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!!

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The novice category run. Expensive high tech timing devices were utilized in the event.

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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

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Pro category run, Sean Khoo, Yoong and Cheaka waiting for their runs..Yoong was super fast that day..time travel fast!!! 🙂

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Me waiting for my run

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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!!

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Cheaka got 1st in the open Novice class and also the fastest female award

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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

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Mike Ng, my Autokhana sifu , thanks buddy for teaching this old dog some new tricks 🙂

For more information on GRA please click below

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