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.