Tag Archives: GRA

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

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 jackdscn2184

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 rundscn2237

Yoong practicing his pose to the camera when recieving his 1st place trophy during the award ceremonydscn2245

The Eco Coat girlsdscn2307

Yoong 1st!!!dscn2315

Andy Kow recieves 2nddscn2304

Me in 3rddscn2303

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

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.

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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

GrassRacingAutoclub