I'm diverting some attention away from Pocong at the moment, been trying out GT5 in PS3 only sold it two weeks after due to adrenalin of 100cc kart. Considering my gear is already nudging 4-5 years of age, it's high time for change. Not Alpinestar kit unfortunately, but Sparco stuffs:
Pictures tell a thousands words right but which words?? Well some of the words in the last Media Formula Plus 2010 area these courtesy of 1Motor resident photographer....
Group photo...1Motor conquered rightist, leftist and centre!
Team discussion took place with Firman aiming for the TOP!
All smiles except him again hahaha
Satay
Firman
And yours truly
Kiki of Driven gave a thumbs up!
This is where you can see smiles widen so much so that the teeth are clearly visible from everyone especially us
Malay Mail successfully defended the title
And when it comes to us, the team manager says it all!
Karting on a competitive level has never been my soon-to-do-list because I feel I’m not ready for it. But it turns out that I’ve got a call from a friend asking me to join 1Motor team for Media Formula Plus 2010 endurance race which held yesterday in Speedway Plus circuit where everything are fully sponsored. Not setting any expectation, I’m game for it because it’s FREE!
Woke up a wee bit early, warmed up the Pocong and drove straight there and it turns out I was the earliest bird arriving at 6.40ish am. With a sandwich pack in my hand, while eating it as breakfast, I went for a walkabout tour of the circuit which I haven’t driven before, come to think of it, the same applies to the other two drivers (Satay and Firman) and it’s the first time too for the team. A tall order to expect anything except finishing the race. What amazes me by doing this walkabout, “detail, details, details” pops up to my eyes on exactly the track width, elevation changes, surface quality (some areas are in mediocre state due to drifting runs held), minor pot holes but enough it giving a hell ride and of course a good starting point for entry points etc. Danny Sullivan’s book is right after all hahaha
Upon registering, 1Motor has been listed in Group C, where the format gives us 8 mins practice & qualifying, and 25mins endurance race. Our strategy of the day was to give our lead drive Satay the whole 8 mins for qualifying and being first driver pulling a long first stint, followed by Firman and I’m the last one acting as fail-safe should we need to climb places at the very last minute. A good strategy nonetheless….
With 9 teams competing in Group C, Satay managed to grab pole by some margin of about mid 1:01mins. Things however starting to look like a Hollywood when our kart failed to start which leaving us at dead last of the pack and this allows TV3 Po-Nai to take the lead. Ironically this also happens to Kiki of Driven but luck, skills and experience on their side when they climb up the pace and finished on top in Group B.
Hoping to achieve the same sort of feat, Satay managed to keep his frustration at bay and began putting the hammer down, nailed just right to climb up places. And by lap 6, we’re back in the lead with TV3 Po-Nai still on his tail. And when it’s Firman’s turn to go, TV3 Po-Nai managed overtake him on the long sweeper and retake the lead and by then gave us a good margin distance.
Being the fail-safe driver, I’ve got pressure amounting to at least catch up to them but things doesn’t turned to be rosy when the kart engine failed to start again and we’ve lost a good 5secs there alone. Going out with track familiarisation and flat out all in one go, I decided to take late apex on all corners on the first lap to get myself acclimatised fast and coming to next lap, I began pushing hoping to catch a glimpse of TV3 Po-Nai by lapping 2 teams in the process. But my overdeveloped trigger-ness on the last corner causes us to lose time and managed to embarrassingly spun on the area on my cool down lap after being chequered. In my defense if I may, I’m struggling to modulate the throttle and brakes ala on-off effect, on when for full out running and anything lesser than full throttle just want to die. Nevertheless we still retain 2nd and heading for the final!
A bit of rain came and camouflaged the track surface and obviously made it slippery especially first and last turn. Another hindrance is our new kart this time is down on power than the problematic first. But that doesn’t stop Satay to clocks high 1:00min but that only good enough for 3rd placing. Given that we’re competing against pro drivers of defending champion Malay Mail XMM, TV3 Po-Nai and Driven, 3rd place is just the best we can possibly do for now.
A biggest surprise of the final was F1 hopeful Nabil Jefri is joining the race albeit starting last. And as expected, he rocketed to fourth behind us on the start. Satay did his absolute best to keep him at bay but that doesn’t stop Nabil to overtake on lap 3 as we dropped down to fourth while Malay Mail XMM and TV3 Po-Nai already about ½ track ahead. Looking at damage limitation, we’re working on to retain fourth placing till the end. But on 2nd stint, Firman got overtaken by 2 karts though unsure whether they were overtaking for position of unlapped themselves. Pressure began to mount to the team for a good finish.
Decided not wanting to repeat the rookie mistakes, as my turn to drive in the end, I decided to taking it easy on first turn but flat all the way through long sweepers and got good rhythm on the slow technical turns on the last section while taking it easy on the last corner. It turned out to be a good approach as I managed to catch-up with the two karts and overtaken them on the technical section and one at the last corner approaching to the final straight. 3 laps to go was the final lap with me taking it cautiously on the last one to bring home the kart in fourth with Driven team behind us!
We were again delivered a jolly good news that Plus team driven by Nabil and gang didn’t classified as competitors which moved our standing to 3rd with prices of RM3000 cash and trophy. It’s a bloody good outcome considering it’s the first time entry for the team with drivers got no experience on this track at all.
I’ve told Mio of 1Motor that I’d like to come back for next year and together hopefully we can challenge for top spot. Until then, my novel has not finished yet and of course in between the time I’m heading for City Karting with buddies for another rempiting session :)
Confirm aku memang layak sebab free hahaha
Not sure whether this is the ideal line in Speedway Plus....but the last turn need to take it wide
Had a walk-through when the sun yet to rise
Glimpse of the sun starting to wake up
It's daylight alright and just done with the walkabout tour
Hmmm
Looks the part but the old junk at City Karting is 30% more powerful
Suubbbbaaaruuu
Geng-geng rempit yang berjaya bersama Mr Manager-nya. It's the first time for the 1Motor team to enter this event, first time track for us all but rezeki murah ini hari hehehe
As mentioned in the previous posting, yeah we had our karting session again last week Sunday. Part of the reason is my ex officemate by the name of Ban (tayar in Indonesian) just came back for holiday from Saudi Arabia, he will go merajuk should we opted not to go with him this time. :P
Since the session will kick off in the afternoon, I accompanied a Polo GTI owner, Ajae to Jooi Seng in the morning to ditch newly shod Dunlop LM703s (one week old) for RSRs. Just like Munir who changed to RSRs two weeks back, he got the same good bargain price of RM370 per piece. At last this guy has fallen for my racun after so much resistance on his side, see Ajae, as they say, resistance is futile! I’m a good recommender tau!
By 2.30pm most of us already in City Karting track, 8 to be exact including my brothers, getting busy conteng-conteng the forms, handing out cash to the towkey, strapping in our helmets and gloves and ready to rempit! This time around, it’s quite an exhausting one with the sun heating the track and those on it like an oven baking a hell lot of heat to melt the cheese; nevertheless all of us enjoyed the evening as every karting session we had.
That day, I managed to pick up few pointers of what separating us from the pros. Guys like Edwyn, who is a MyKart race driver (and Polo GTI owner too) managed to drive his line precisely clean and consistently over numerous laps. These couple with his car control alone will net easily 2-3 seconds off me and geng-geng se-angkatan per lap. And say his best laptime of about 1.09s, in 10 laps, he would be further ½ lap ahead!
And because of my over spending time on this new addiction brings me to one shameful confession. The more time I spend on karting, the more worsen I feel on driving cars hard on sweeping bends and long fast straights on the road or on the track. It’s something that the road cars’ compromise between comfort and fun causing it to be soft, imprecise, inactive and just not as rewarding compared to decent prepped kart. Of course, there’re cars offering more focus experience, but it’s no brainer to me because I don’t think I can afford one anytime soon (but I will consider one to nursing my up and coming midlife crisis in 10-15 years time :P)
Modding on the other hand, can brings more focus injections but it’s like a carving of what already been a neatly packaged sirloin meat by most run-of-the-mill gourmet shops where idiots like me might mostly end up spoiling the entire car. This then brings me to one penultimate question, should I abandon my modding junkie-ness on the Pocong and just get an uncompromised kart to unleash my lust or stay where I’m now i.e. agak-agak boleh modding junkie? hehehe
And back to road driving, I’m going back to my favourite Ulu Yam road tomorrow morning, trying to find out what road driving can offer where karting just couldn’t….hmmmm
Anyway, here’s an array of pictures of our karting session courtesy of Ban & his brother.
1st head underway...
Tussle between my two brothers (Adli and Qusyairi), the rempit came on top!
Adli still got to improve is line through
The tapaued Qusyairi soldier on... until...
...I came and lap him kakaka
Qusyairi correcting skids
Close up pic, helmet ok... gloves ok... but shoes not ok :P
Was it Ajae at the back there with the white/red top? hahaha
Kart21 (Kart 27 in previous weeks) was ok just down on pawar
2nd heat, this kart is extremely vibrating and very loose tail end but very PAWAR!
PAWAR! PAWAR! PAWAR!
Catching up to Haji Ban!
Bye bye Haji!!
3rd heat underway....
Who's got the rights to the corner first? Me me me says everyone here ...
My mates and I again had our karting session last week Sunday. The sun was shining, the track was dry, humid and grippy; and in my case, with exception of the 2nd heat, I had a competitive kart this time :)
Generally, our pace are getting better and I managed to get fruitful results from some experimentations of racing line and corner entry & exit, not to mention going wheel to wheel with seasoned karter Ajae for some laps with me managed to edge him in the end hahaha. Just that, I wish to know how fast we were going…..
There’s still more issues need to be addressed though. Among those is definitely on my stamina and fitness has to go a notch higher as I had to end 3rd heat earlier because of both my feet got crammed. And I have to get my racing line cleaner for better consistency.
In the end, all of us have been thoroughly enjoyed this one and realising this is getting more addictive hobby, we’re set to go again next week. Oh I can’t wait to rempit again!
In the mean time, do enjoy of array of pictures courtesy of Mohd Norhusairi :)
80cc again..
Nikon's colour is awesomely good!
I was about to lap the guys on 1st heat...
We were taking 5 after 1st heat
Even penyanyi rock Nasir also joined :P
Getting ready for 2nd heat
Rolling start commencing on 2nd heat..
This has to be the worst shitbox on wheels I've ever driven here. It's alignment wayyy off its axis and the talk about the power, I'd be better running than driving!
Joe getting more serious now :)
No Tazir, I'm getting back my kart from 1st heat :P
3rd heat commencing and I started from the very back...
Tazir tension as he too got shitbox on 3rd heat :P
Self confessed rempitster which isn't really fast, just pretending to be fast. Norm for him to have a very shallow pocket at the end of the day after doing some mods perceived to be slow, 'cheap' but definitely special on the Pocong GTI
