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
Zerotohundred 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 event
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 .
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.
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.
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