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Grass
Racing Autocross Championship 2007 Round 1 -
by autoworld
June
04, 2007
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GRA
Round 1 Competitors!!!
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Shah
Alam, 3 June 2007 – Grass Racing Autosports started off its
Autocross Championship 2007 with a great event held at the Shah
Alam Stadium today. A total of 90 vehicles entered the grassroots
level competition, and the normally quiet stadium car park
reverberated to the sounds of screaming engines, screeching tyres,
and the air was filled with the smell of burnt rubber as the
competitors drove their hearts out to get the fastest times in
their respective classes.
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With
the timely entry of BF Goodrich as the main sponsors, supported by
Redline and Meguiars’, Grass Racing Autosports (GRA) was able to
launch the autocross season at last. “We really appreciate the
contributions by
BF
Goodrich, Redline and Meguiars’ because, as you know, it takes
quite a bit of resources to put a championship series together,”
said
Ian
Khong, Clerk-of-Course for the event.
The
format of the event has changed a little from the previous season.
This time , there is an additional category for ‘automatic’
transmissions, to cater for those who own these types of cars, but
want to compete as well. “After all, this is grass roots
motorsports - you come to race in the car you drive to work,”
said
Low
Jian Nin, co-owner and CEO of Grass Racing Autosports.
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The
Motorsports Association of Malaysia came to show their
support for grass roots racing |
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Julian
Pang won the blink-blink award with his colourful Redline
Car |
“We
have a large community of enthusiasts, and a very active forum on
our website www.grassracingautosports.com, and it is our members
who requested that we start this new automatic transmission cars
category. We believe that we are the only motorsport organizer who
has done this, and we believe that it is only a matter of time
before others follow suit,” Ms Low added. For this event, a
total of five entries were in the automatic category.
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In
addition, the competitors are split into two categories for this
season. “We have a very large entry list, and it is logical to
separate the entries into the two categories as we have done. The
novices are now all grouped into a separate category, while the
experienced drivers will have the chance to battle it out. There
is less waiting time for the competitors in this format, a move
that was welcomed by most of the participants.
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The
novice category was run in the morning session while the
‘expert’ category was run in the afternoon.
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| The event was graced by the
presence of Peter Hansen, CEO of MAM (Motorsports
Association of Malaysia) who came to observe the event, as
this was the first event to be held after the launch of MAM,
the new governing body for motorsport in Malaysia, last
week. “This autocross championship is really the level
that we must support, because this is where our future
Malaysian racing and rally drivers will emerge from,” said
Peter Hansen. |
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“We
will definitely continue giving assistance and support in any way
possible,” he went on.
The
track for today was a high speed course, with fewer turns and
slaloms, which favoured the more powerful cars. However, there
were three ‘roundabouts that were quite ‘tight’, and not
only did they serve to slow the cars down at critical places,
skill was required to get around them as quickly as possible.
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In
the expert category, known as ‘Pro-Grass Class’ Hisham
Jahudi set the fastest time of the day with a combined time
of 129.49 seconds over three best times out of five timed
runs. He took part in a Lotus Elise, bored out from the
original 1600
cc to 1800.
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Sharing the car with Hisham was Marcus Chye, who
came in second fastest at 130.16 seconds. Third was Dominic Ang
who clocked 132.88 seconds. Ivan Khong had some handling problems
with his Subaru, and only managed fourth with a time of 135.00
seconds. Close behind in fifth was Mickey Teoh in a MR2 Turbo who
was one tenth of a second slower at 135.01 seconds. In sixth place
was Christopher Chin in a Honda Civic V-Tec, and Soo Sing Kuan was
seventh in another Civic. The final points winning position was
taken by Julian Pang. ~end~
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