My View, My Sense, My Memory: 06/01/2010

Petaling Jaya 15th June – Grass Racing Autosports or commonly known as GRA, held their second ever night race at the famous Sepang International F1 Circuit car park. Sponsored by Red Line Oils, Gophers GPS, Vanli Genuine Parts, Perma Glass, BFGoodrich Tires, EcoCoats, Greenletrics, ContourHD and Acrogain. Moving onto Round 2, the fast straights and tighten hairpins proved to be a race of attrition for the Open Class Cars, as each of the top leading runners suffered some form of failure before starting their night runs.

Ee Yoong Cherng in a Nissan S13 Silvia Turbo claimed top spot when he managed to clinch 1st Overall in the 2nd round of GRA. Yoong, having the skills and car for autocrossing, proved unbeatable here and this would be his second successive win in SIC. Marcus Chye from Team Lotus Malaysia managed a 2nd Overall with Ivan Khong from Team BFGoodrich Tires taking 3rd Overall. Whereas Marcus had a no incident run, Ivan suffered a cracked radiator after his first run, then suffered a broken exhaust manifold subsequently. He did manage to finish the course, with the least minimum runs cumulative to ensure a spot in the standings.

Yoong was uncatchable, as he clocked under the 2minute barrier with a fastest time of 1m58.732secs. With Marcus still leading the championship after his Round 1 win, Yoong and Marcus are tied for the lead of GRA’s toughest ever autocross championships. Julian Pang from Team Red Line in his Proton Wira MIVEC, was the fastest normally aspirated car in the top 5 coming in 4th Overall and first in his Class OC (1601cc – 2000cc). Ray Leong from Team EcoCoats in his Nissan 200sx, managed a 5th Overall and taking 4th in Class OD, proving that 4th Overall twice in SIC may not be a fluke after all. William Lim from Team Vanli Genuine Parts, was ever quick again in his Automatic Suzuki Swift taking 7th Overall, 1st in his Class AA ( Automatic up to 2500cc ) and 1st in Grass Class.

The course layout was fast, with a long straight spanning about 400 meters making it possible to hit 4th gear for the more powerful cars. Mike Ng, in his Mitsubishi Evo 7, went up on the ranks with a superb finish in 7th Overall, taking precious points to chalk up his standings in the Open Class. 2009 GRA Champion Andy Kow in his Subaru Impreza has issues on getting to the start, and had to get a loaner car from compatriot Chiew Ruoh Peng’s BMW Z4M. Andy managed an 11th Overall finish, and picking up valuable points to continue his defense of his title. Alven Lee in his Perodua Kelisa with a new power plant was able to chalk up a fantastic run with a 2nd in Class OA win, and taking 9th Overall in Open Class. Despite being the smallest car in the Open Class, his driving was clean and quick on the fast circuit, making use of the wide open car park to chop down the times. Kenneth Chiew from Team EcoCoats managed only a 3rd in Class OA, behind William and Alven.

In Pro Grass Class OB ( 1501cc-1600cc ), Zulraimi Yunus in his Toyota Corolla, took 1st in Class, with Norhaziman Bahaman in his Proton Satria taking 2nd with Tuah Damak in a Honda Civic taking 3rd. After the day runs, all 3 competitors were within one second of each other fighting for the lead. It was the night run that Zulraimi clocked 2/100sec faster than Norhaziman to take the win. Woo Keen Pong from Team Vanli Genuine Parts had a good run till he was caught out with a flying left rear wheel coming off and overtaking him on the back straight. Pong said ‘I was going flat out till I heard a loud noise and the car was sliding all over the place before I could do anything, I saw a wheel flying over my car’. It was a scary moment as it was during the night run and to the disbelief of everyone as the tire flew over the large drain and landing onto the side of the curb on the other end.

In Pro Grass OC (1601cc-2000cc), 2nd spot went to Edrin Mokthar in a Proton Satria GTI, with Nicholas Teh taking 3rd in a Proton Putra. Sia Chee Bin from Team Perma Glass in his Proton Satira NEO, had a problematic run with his car suffering from an electrical problem throughout the race causing him to be both a mechanic and driver at the same time. In the Open Class Novice for OD, Andrew Yap in a Lotus Exige took 1st spot with Zahril Fikri taking 2nd spot in his FWD Charade Turbo Espri with Tan Ke-Vin in a Golf GTI taking 3rd. The race did not prove to be an easy one, with many drivers getting caught out with car failures just before the night runs.

Ivan spent the entire day fixing his car, with competitor Sky Loo helping him out and going between runs to assist drivers in a limp. Howard Goh from Red Line said, ‘GRA is a very strong community that boasts on competitive spirit amongst drivers and also bonds friendships amongst everyone’. It was not surprising to see everyone helping out, as with Pong suffering from his flying wheel, Charlie Ling and various others came to the rescue by lifting up the car to tighten back the wheel onto the disc hub. There was also presence of a group of photographers who came to take pictures of the GRA event regularly to support the grassroot motorsports. The main attraction for them was mainly the racequeens who normally grace the event during lunch time to add color to the event.

Perma Glass’s representative Ong Chuan Yuan said, ‘We are embarking on a new partnership with GRA that really shows what and how we can work with the community which is truly great for us to allow fans to try out the stuff we have, we look forward to the coming Round 3’. EcoCoats Managing Director Kevin Leow said, ‘We are fielding in 3 cars, as we want to promote GRA as a good form of motorsports, and anyone in any car is able to join and race in a safe environment’.

The race also had the presence of Vanli Genuine Parts supporting the event with the availability of certain car parts during race day. Woo Keen Pong from Vanli said, ‘GRA is a large community of drivers who know what is good for their cars. We want to be the driver’s solution for parts, and we want to grow with the community of drivers here in GRA’. Lee Siong from Gophers GPS, participating himself in his Mazda Miata proved that one need not need a fast car to have fun. ‘I want to drive in GRA myself to learn and improve my driving ability and also to utilize our GPS unit in racing conditions!’ said a quirky Lee Siong who is also the Managing Director of Gophers GPS.

GRA moves into Round 3 with much anticipation on who will take the lead in the championship after the third round. As the race draws nearer, all the competitors are gearing up with more modifications now to be ahead. GRA still has the Novice and Grass Class categories for the grassroot level drivers, but with the Open Class drivers taking it one notch higher, this year’s race will prove to a very interesting one. There are 3 more rounds left in the season with the championship going either way. For more details of this exciting series, log onto www.grassracingautosports.com for autocrossing updates.