Cold Start

It was the 1st Round of Rotax Max Challenge in Malaysia and I took part of it for the first time. Along with a couple of sanctioned races and good practices in the bag, everything seems to go well as planned. The highlight of the weekend was the Pre-Final race as I finished a decent 13th from a very close racing indeed. The lowlight however, was the cold start in Heat 1. I stalled my engine on the grid after qualifying brilliantly in 8th place. Here's my report, Enjoy :-)

Friday Practice.

Still using the tires from the previous round of KKS(2008) I managed to get mid to low 45 seconds. The practice was ok, with a normal setting for that day everything seems to be going according to plan even though the search for 44 secs seems impossible that day until the last lap of the session. All is well :-)

Saturday.

The whole day was wet. From morning until the end of the session. The rain lasted for hours hence a very flooded track. Luckily PLUS lorry came to the rescue and with the hardworking guys working their butts off cleaning and drying the track. Well at least the track is a little bit bearable compared to earlier day. The 1st Free Practice was productive, still in 45s but sometimes in reached 44s. Then came the Qualifying, ok this session was very very wet everyone seems to struggle with grip. the fastest man was in 51's and I was just a second of pace which was 52's. I was surprised that I qualified 8th among 17 runners. Pretty pleased to see more experienced drivers were at the back.

Heat 1

This part was the most embarrassing part of the weekend. The weather was cold and I'm not aware of cold starting yet. It really brings the memories of KKS 2nd round as I failed to start the engine on the grid. Same thing happened to me in RMC except RMC is a big race so it's more embarrassing . I decided not to finish because of tire saving etc. I was not the only one though. There were 5 non starters on Heat 1.

Sunday

Warm-up

I was really late that time so I have only less than 10 minutes to have a go in the track. Nothing special really, just warming up the body so it'll get used to the long hard day.

Heat 2

Even though I started 8th I struggled badly in my kart. My teammate's had an incident in the track. Coincidentally the place that I have the most advantage to overtake people was ruined. To rub salt on the wound, my petrol tank leaked and the fuel kept gushing out on my leg. Hence I had minor petrol burns on my leg. However because of the gap from me to the front driver is really close, I decided to ignore it.

Pre-final

Probably the best part of the weekend I suppose. Started decently, overtook some guys and accidentally overtake a couple of guys too! It was a really fun race. The gaps were very close. I even managed to get my personal best time in this race :-)

After the race, it was all good racing for the drivers. You can really see almost all drivers get along with each other happily.

Final

I changed my setup of the kart as I was struggling with the handling all weekend. And you know what? It got even worse! It was brilliant for the first few laps. There was an incident too. Someone hit the cone and caused chaos on the track! One unfortunate driver had the cone stuck underneath his kart and went straight into the grass. After that incident I was struggling with the kart ever since. The kart simply won't turn! I finished 12th in a very lonely race.

A very big thank you for all you who supported me that weekend and I hope you guys will support me again until I reach my goal :-D

All Fired Up For This Weekend.

It's been a hectic day for me today. Pickup my sis, went to the bank but the clerk gently shooshed me :-( , time's not on my side today. Everything feels fast. I think the time is on a high dose of Red Bull. Anyway the race preparation is going on very well. I bought the important stuffs for the weekend such as food, utensil etc. Let's hope no one's going to steal it ;-) . However, I still have a couple of things I didn't buy yet. Thermo flask, performance t-shirts and a proper luggage to fit in all those cumbersome stuffs. The downside for today was I can seem to find a good time to go the gym today :-( RMC is just a couple of days away and I really need to find a right time to condition myself prior to the race. Believe me no one wants to look like a deflated Michelin man after the race :p.

P/S: I bought some no smoking signs for my brother's restaurant. Kinda awkward. It's like a bully giving his victim a weapon so one can bully the victim no more.

Rotax Max Challenge is on!

I really hate this part but yeah sorry for the late post. I was not bored so I decided not to update the blog. But the truth was I was kinda busy with stuffs going on and my head doesn't have anything good to say other than thanks, good day to you and let's eat or maybe let's exercise! Anyway I'm still in uplift mood since my podium finish and having a good day in practice recently. Rotax Max Challenge is on this week and I'm psyched about it! It's going to be an exciting weekend and if there's more supporters it'll be much better regardless the results I got(well actually it's kinda important so I don't get booed by supporters). My real aim for this year to move up the grid. John King told me I can be in the middle pack but the front pack that is. Thats like lining up a little in front for your food in the canteen. So now I just wait for guys in front to trip or fight each other maybe because someone pinched their butts so I can get my food(win) earlier than expected :-). Its been a good week! The race, the podium, the support, the practice, I'm so happy I bought 2 protein shakes!!!(buy one free one man) .I'll stop here and I will continue tomorrow or the other day or when I bought some energy bars :p

P/S: I'm not wearing my suit and helmet while writing this

All systems oh no my chain..I mean all systems go!

Hi everyone, sorry again for the late update(I hate saying this). It's been a very busy month and will be busy again until the beginning of February. First of all the My-Kart Drivers series had just started. Supposedly the first race should be in 3rd January but due to rain we had to postpone it into the 17th of January. It was a bad weekend for me though. My tire pressure were wrong, the engine was not performing well and I struggled for consistency throughout the race. In 1st heat it went bad as I struggled with oversteer and most of all I had no brake pads. Into the 2nd heat, it was great the first few laps, took the lead but unfortunately I was bogged down and lose 3-4 places and it stays there without any exciting or thrilling race as I was virtually racing alone. I got DNF in the final :-( courtesy of someone in a blue suit(there were 4 of them) who bogged me down and at the same time snapping my chains. I had to make do with a spare kart with 3 laps down and to add more into my misery the kart had no brake pads too because they took it and put it on the kart that I used before. I had to retire anyway so there you go, a typical retirement for a racing driver :p. I felt a bit miserable after that but no matter it's gone anyway and it's just a race I'll get lucky soon. I was suppose to compete in the KKS 1st round as well. However, I had other work to do so I didn't compete in it. My teammate entered though and finished a great 2nd in the race :-). It's quiet actually with my new team since it's the holidays and I shall resume 'winter' testing after the holidays. For now its just training with the 100cc Yamaha kart to get to know the technical stuff etc for the preparation of the first round of Yamaha SL Cup.

Its been awhile

Its been awhile since the last post. I was too busy with the racing I had for the past couple of weeks ago. First, its the KKS and yesterday was the Endurance race organized by My-Kart. The KKS was the worst race that I had in my career so far to be honest. I had a very bad setup, I was off the pace by 3 secs per lap and some stupid mistakes in the pit lane itself =( . The final race was wet though. Had to drive with the rubbish tires all weekend, I struggled to get the grips of the kart and had a DNF in the pre-final. At the end of the day I got 10th out of 14th. I feel demoralised after the race until the endurance race.



A week after the KKS, I'm all for the My-Kart's MME. Everything went well at 1st, qualified at the middle since the kart wasn't up to the optimum performance yet. We were 4th coming on to an easy 3rd or maybe more until our wheels almost came off at the half of session running. We had to pit obviously, costing us 12 laps. The mechanics weren't so helpful though. A simple knock on the wheels is enough to make it running again but at a rate off 1.16 mins a lap from fairly consistent 1.12s, all seems to went down the drain. We managed to salvage 9th place overall out of 14th which was not bad considering the damage we had. It seems to me 9th is the way to go for me in 2008. Forget about the last year, its 2009 now and lets start with lots of resolutions!

1st. Be active in motorsports. I mean very active since I have all the time in the world to make that Insyaallah, F1,F2,GP2,GP3,A1,FBMW,FPA,FRenault,BTCC,WTCC any thing you name it!
2nd. Learn something new. I do that every year but this time motorsports wise ;)
3rd. A full season in karting. No matter how good or bad I am, I'm still racing ok? I don't give plank of the criticism >:)
4th. Improve yourself. Not just in racing, life and so forth :)
5th. Join Formula racing. Its a big dream but why dream small when you can dream big?
6th. More passionate
7th. The new Alfa Romeos. May I get one please?
8th. Make everyone happy. Seems hard but not impossible :-)
9th. Quit bad habits
10th. Like every year be faithful. I am by the way :-D
11th. Join MME. If the price/place is right.
12th. Make myself useful in every fields
13th. Get fitter! My fitness is average for a racing driver so must get into the higher level of fitness.
14th. Smile more frown less
15th. Stay away from sins
16th. Be less afraid when it comes to challenges.
17th. Be green. I am a green man but this year I'll try to be as green as a young tea leaf.
18th. Promote people to a healthy and faithful life :-)
19th. Travel around the peninsula with a car!
20th. Errr get a girlfriend? Well if I have the luck but hmmm maybe I'll wait lol

Anyway, that's all that I can think of. Happy New Year!!

Painful and a sharp pill to swallow.

Its a really sad day, a painful one to be frank. First of all, I've decided to withdraw from the Yamaha SL Final this Sunday. The reason was, I had an accident a couple of days ago and it was a bad one. I got thrown out from a kart and landed heavily(just like MotoGP). I have scratches all over me and some swollen body parts =(. I still can kart though, however my mechanics aren't around and I have to rely on Mikko to be my mechanic. I thought I was up for it but after thinking that I'll have to do a hefty amount of lifting a kart and constantly using my shoulders for everything, it won't be a picnic for me even if the mechanics are around so I decided to withdraw and let it heal for the Final of KKS next Sunday. I can't afford to miss out a lot of races now y'know so maybe I just keep my body safe from injuries. I've learned a new lesson too! I should put on all my safety gear(including suits) even when I'm fun karting. I would like to take this opportunity to advice all of you drivers and racers out there. Be safe, be careful, don't be too aggressive, learn more about the safety of a vehicle and such and don't forget the seatbelts(well of course in racing you are REQUIRED to do so).

Not to mention Hari Raya Aidiladha is coming too and I would like to wish you all Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha =D. Drive safe and enjoy your holidays!

All is well?

Have you ever had a feeling...a good feeling but it ended up very badly? For example when you are planning to go to a fancy restaurant with a date. A beautiful date, you got your salary to spend, traffic's not in the way to disturb you on the way to the restaurant and when you reached the restaurant you found out that the restaurant was burned down and you had do with the restaurant nearby which is a contrast between the restaurant you originally planned? Dirty, filthy and such. Even if you want to turn back, the traffic's full and your date is complaining that she's hungry. Enough about that, it happened to me last Saturday in the My-Kart K3 race. The 1st heat was good, I finished 2nd with a slow kart(the kart ahead was too fast for me and eventually the kart won it all). However, the track conditions made up for it. Wet and slippery that's what I needed for a slow kart. Brandon Lim and me finished 1-2 respectively but we were demoted 10 places down due to jumpstart. This angered me and Brandon because the jumpstart occurred obviously during the start of the race. Yes I do admit that what I did was wrong and was unaware about it since I've raced in real karting competition, when you see a green flags been waved, FULL SPEED AHEAD!! No one is going to give you a chance! The incident happened at the 1st lap of the race. The real penalty for that is a drive through penalty. That would the most fitting penalty for that kind of behaviour. Otherwise why would we be pushing as hell until the end of race? Somebody needs to buy a drive through penalty flag! Moving on to the 2nd heat. So I started legally this time ;) but before that my kart stalled at the rolling lap so I had to take a spare kart(Its ok no brakes but nvm bout that who needs em in 80cc). Again I bit the dust of the fast kart that dominated the whole event. I finished a very safe 2nd though just like the 1st one. That made me qualified for the Group A Final(just). This is the hard part telling. There was a confusion during kart selection. I picked '11' but the kart wasn't there at the grid so I picked up another spare kart which was so so rubbish! I started at the middle of the grid. Right after the green flag waves off, everyone overtook me and yes I finished dead last in the end. No matter, its just a fun race anyway I have other big races to focus on =) . The Yamaha SL Cup final round would be in a week's time. I hope Mikko's back soon so I can enter the competition as I craved for real competition for awhile already. I also booked a hotel for the 13-14th Dec KKS Championship =) . I also made a plan about next year's racing activities including a BIG ambitions to enter the Formula Renault Championships next year. With Rotax Max Challenge, KKS Championships and Yamaha SL Cup, it'll be a packed year full of motorsport activities.

Also this week I brought my 2 lovely cars to take on Sepang F1 track. On Wednesday, I brought the GTI. It's business as usual as the car behaved pretty much safe at the track. Albeit too safe for my reckoning. On Thursday I brought the Alfa 156 GTA which was a terrifying experience. Well a good terrified though. The car was pretty much safe with the traction control on, so we decided to off it and.....all hell breaks loose. We were all over the place! We enjoyed it so much until the brakes eventually fade due to much stress that was put into the car and...we realized it at the last corner at the track which was a 2-3rd gear corner and it requires heavy braking as you're going flat out before that. We did went flat out, then when the braking part needs to be done, it didn't work =0. I was doing the limit of the Alfa could take so yeah we almost end up crashing or maybe totaled car. We survived though the ordeal and hurt our face muscles because we were screaming non stop at the track enjoying the sideways trip =).

All and all I had a great week, a good start where I left off from the eventful last week. All is well I guess.