Tag Archives: malaysia drift

MAEPS course testing

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Since we will be organising a drift competition in August in MAEPSMAEPS, we were given the opportunity to test the place out. As the course is fairly huge we thought it would be a good to conduct our own form of testing too. Drift House: Their Cefiro V8 and their SR20 TE71 and me with the Goodyear Duraplus tires.

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Here is the world premier of Drift House’s Cefiro V8 in action..

Please show some respect laa…

The subjective nature of Drifting as a competitive sport  makes this sport unique .Unlike other form of motorsport , where speed or time is the main criteria when  deciding the winner or when awarding points. Drifting goes beyond that where subjective matters like style , flair and aggression are also  key factors which no machine or piece of equipment could quantify or evaluate. This is where the  role of  the Judge comes in. Though clipping points and drifting lines are easy to for one to see , the Judge has a tough task of how to judge style, flair and aggression. What makes one person’s style better than the other? Why another’s flair is better than the other? Often these aspects of Judging in a drift competition causes a lot of confusion and at times frustration to participants and spectators  alike. This is where the importance of a driver’s/drifter’s briefing. Though most Judges look out for basically the same thing, they do however put emphasis on different criteria which will reflect on the points they give. Some give more for aggression but others may stress on flair and style. During the drivers briefing is where you would get an  inkling on what the Judge is looking for.

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Bombard the Judge with questions. Ask him what is he looking for? Give him scenarios and ask for his judgment based on it. With all that you will get an idea of what the Judge is looking for. So your job is to fulfill that to get maximum points possible.

Tandem or  tsusio is where it  really hits the fan. Imagine this. A Judge with only one pair of eyes has to scrutinized and evaluate  two cars going at each other. Added with the fact ,due to logistics or location , at times  the Judges stand is not located at the  most ideal location .Most of the time he might not have a good vantage point to see what is going on . To make matter worse, sometimes competitions run till its dark  where low light or glare makes  visibility is really low. If you think thats tough , how about ; the tandem participants do not drift as close to one another during entry and approach to the first corner as its the only way to not get caught being cut off  :pdsc_0216

How in the world could he look at both cars simultaneously ? With situations as such, it should not be  surprising if the Judge makes a wrong call. So yes, we as Judges  all are capable of making mistakes.

As a competitor, there are two ways you could go about it; 1) Accept the Judge’s decision and haul your ass out of there as soon as possible and sulk in one corner or 2) Protest..

Protest, if allowed , should be done as soon as the judgment has be made: No point making big issue after the next tandem battle has taken place as this will disrupt the flow of competition. All start marshals are equipped with  walkies which connects directly to the judge or someone sitting next to the judge. So if you have anything to say , tell it to the start marshal. If you are not satisfied ask for permission to go to the judging stand. Again this is to not disrupt those going on for the next run. Only protest when you have concrete evidence ( Video or track marshal) as witness or really feel strongly against the Judges decision . After presenting your case the final decision falls only on the hands of the Judge’s decision. So its either the Judge  accepts  it or you have to accept his. Leave immediately to avoid holding the event back or if the Judge agrees at doing  another run then go to the start  to prepare for another run.

A good example to show a good protest ethic was displayed by Meryvn Mohd  of Federal Tyres ,during the last round of MDC last year. He was unclear why my decision of giving the win to his tandem competitor so he requested to come up to the judges both to make an inquiry.

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Mervyn’s protest/inquiry Photo taken from http://mohdhelmiphotography.blogspot.com/

He came up in a respected manner and asked. I explained it to him and he thanked me and left. This is a very good example of a proper approach any drifter should take ,not so much for agreeing with the judge’s decision but more to the level of professionalism  displayed and the dignity and respect he showed to the judge . Remember ,your actions or behavior you display, will reflect on your sponsors and also more importantly on yourself as a person.

Judges are human too. We are prone to make mistakes like everyone else. Most importantly , these mistakes are not intentional.So please show some respect laaa….

CyberJaya Drift Challenge 16th May 2009

In conjunction with Cyberjaya’s twelve year anniversary , a drift contest organised by Comma motorsport was held at the Cyberjaya Community club on last Saturday.This event was managed by Drift Art which is spear headed by Fyrus , Idris and Oan . Cheaka and I had missed their  last two sessions held there , so we thought that we had better arrive early (11.50 am to be exact) for the 3.30 pm free running prior to the official practice and qualifying to familiarized ourselves to it. We promptly went about setting up our pit as soon as we found a suitable spot and went about inspecting the course. Unlike any other tracks that we had competed in, the Community club course consist of a very short straight followed by a wide long corner which leads to a narrow sharp turn followed by a bumpy chicane. This makes it difficult for drifters to be aggressive during tandem battle on the long wide corner as the following car will most likely be cut off by the leading car going  into the narrow hair pin turn causing them to straighten.

Due to  delays, practice only started at 4.30 which resulted in Cheaka  only having  six runs on this totally foreign track  before having to go for her qualifying run. Due to the nature of the course , the Judge for this competition , Yoong from DCM  had set strict standards  for the Expert category where a mere straightening of the car anytime during the qualifying run, results in  drifter receiving  zero points for their run. This  added even  more pressure on  Cheaka. Running on fresh tires rear tires , Jane had trouble adjusting to the  high grip level of her Goodyear Revspecs. She straighten during her first qualifying run and luck has it ,that even she nailed all the sections of her next run ,she was confused as to where the finishing line was and had stop drifting before the finishing . This  resulted in zeros for both her qualifying run which was a big disappointment to everyone in the team  as the score  certainly does not reflect her drifting level.

I fared a bit better having a few extra runs after having been asked to check the course out prior to the offical practice and gotten a 99 point run  for the first run and a spin of the second run while trying to out do my first attempt.I qualified 2nd highest  . Derek lim qualified 1st as he was more consistent with a 95 and a 99 points run.

The top 16 Tandem  battle for the expert category started at 9 pm with almost all of the lower qualifying drifters ,who were all fairly playing it safe by leaving lots of room between themselves and the leading cars , advancing to the best 8. This trend continued moving on to the next run.Though not as exciting  for the spectators , playing it conservertive was the only way to not get trapped into having your line blocked. My run with Michael Gan went on to a one more time where I made the fatal mistake of being too aggressive while I was trailing which resulted of me straightening when Michael dove into my intended line in the hair pin.  Haiyaa….Anyway, Michael Gan was consistent through out the event and deserved the win.

The event ended with  Rudy Norman taking first place  . Michael Gan second  and  Me third f0r the expert category

My apologies as we were too busy ‘cam whoring’ to know the results of the Novice category…sorry

Photos from that day…

dscn07651Our little spot by the track which we used as our pit..

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The drift competition management crew from Drift Art..

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Lan, Ijat and Rudy Norman cam whoring

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Goodyear’s display booth

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Ja Ja from Comma Motorsport with a friend..

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Lovely Olivia and Mervyn “Nangka Murah” Mohd

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Trying to fill up the pocket of the Judge of the day , Yoong ( Red t shirt)

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Someone posted a video of  the making of a Bollywood Drifting movie which got Burn all excited..seen here Burn singing and dancing in Hindi

Drifting action…my apologies, this is all I took

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Angeline and Jane sharing photos taken on her mobile phone

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Our tent was really popular that day…:P

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Cheaka, En Zuraiman (Goodyear) , I forgot his name (Goodyear) and Angeline (Goodyear) discussing about tire wear on this particular track

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Cheaka and her fans

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Goofing around before the pre qualifying briefing

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Sultan Sulaiman Drifters!!!

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Yoong giving out specific details on what he wanted to see during our runs while Seong looks pretty for the camera

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Feinto D fans came in all sizes!!!

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The drifters and organisers

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In my book these people were the heros of the day..(L-R) Vincent Lim, the guy who rolled over his car and still managed to fight on till fourth placing.. Johari Mat Salleh , definitely the crowd favourite with his consistency and super fast run…Me, err…not hero laa..and Along Bukit Jalil, this dude beat a ‘ well known’ drifter who was driving a more powerful machine, on shredded rear tyres!!

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Pro Drift boss with Pro Drift drifter Oan

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Drift Art big boss , Fyrus ( blue shirt)  receiving his token of appreciation

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Expert Category winner: 1st Rudy Norman

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dscn08801I can’t remember what I was doing here but I suppose this is a good picture to end my posting.. 🙂

RESULTS

1st place RUDY NORMAN ( Drift Art)

2nd place MICHAEL GAN ( GOODYEAR)

3rd place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD ( GOODYEAR SYNC OPTIMA)

SODA in-RAGE

The nice people from STAR newspaper in the Rage section , did a write up on us and added a nice video of our ” Drift Lesson” in Bukit Jalil on their website…though they got  my surname name wrong , they did get my quotes right…which I think is most important!! Here’s the video with Cheaka in it..

MMU DCM Drift Challenge, MITC Malacca Carpark 11-12th April 2009

Having competed in the inaugural MMU DCM Drift Challenge in 2006 but  having to miss the following year’s event, it was good to be back for the 2009’s edition. With Cheaka and I now being supported by Goodyear Malaysia and  with the addition of  Jenshen to our competing Sync Optima/WHAT Team , we felt confident and knew for sure we would have a smashing weekend!!

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We always have a good time when we go to Malacca; the people here are  friendly and the food the  is to die for!! Joe Han and Tina were  the perfect guides and brought us to some of the best eatery in  the historic city!!

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I would strongly recommend the Lycee and Dragon fruit juice whenever you go down to Jonker street!!!

Competition Day

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Cheaka,  on a combination of Goodyear  RS Sports and Revspecs,went  strong throughout the event. She did exceptionally well  during  qualifying ,which was in the wet, where she qualified 14th out of 24 participants. She got a free pass to top 16 when Ivan Lau from Team Bridgestone had some  mechanical trouble but narrowly lost out during the top 8  tandem drift battle against the much more experienced Tan Hang Eng!!



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Jenshen, sporting a newly acquired  ‘black out ‘ motif on his drift machine did well by advancing to top 16 by winning his first tandem battle !!  I expect his performance will improve even further with a new engine and a few modifications in the chassis department that we have planned.

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I surprised everyone, including myself by winning the event after a tough close fight with Bridgestone’s  Tan Tat Wei during the finals. We both went on to two reruns until Tat Wei miscalculated my entry speed while I was leading and T boned me!! Other notable experience was when going against Indonesian drift sensation, Ray ,during the top 8 tandem battle. We had two reruns , where one I had misjudged his path when he saved ‘an almost spin’ and got back on line while I was diving in! The result was a smashed custom made rear bumper on Rays car while I suffered side ‘B’ panel damage!! ‘Minta maaf ‘bang”

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I would have to credit my win to the exceptional performance of the Goodyear tyres , a combination of Goodyear RS sports in front  and t Revspecs at the rear. These tires held on really well as I had only used only one pair on the rear for qualifying and tandem.This amounted to 24 runs, which includes 3 practices runs, 2 qualifying runs and 19 warm up and tandem runs!!

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My part sponsor , team mechanic and friend, Ah Leong (above, far right) had not failed us throughout the event!. Not only had he ensured that everything went smoothly , but he was experienced enough to come well prepared went it didn’t!  Thanks buddy!

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RESULTS

1st place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD (GOODYEAR SYNC OPTIMA)

2nd place TAN TAT WEI ( BRIDGESTONE)

3rd place Mr K ( ACE Suspension)

8th place AZRINA JANE ABDULLAH ( GOODYEAR SYNC OPTIMA)

Of course there’s no other way to end the day other then fill our stomach up with good Malacca food.. Gebeh, founder and owner of Tonka exhaust brought Team Bridgestone and us to this famous ‘Satay Celup” joint down town.

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Please stay tune for more pictures from the event!!