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Wakefield
Park Circuit, Sydney, Australia December
09,
2006 |
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Malaysian Driver Makes it in Australian Time Trial
Saturday, December 09, 2006 By
YS Khong
Friday 8 December 2006, Sydney,
Australia - Well known Malaysian race and rally driver, Ian Khong,
won the Sydney AutoSalon Circuit Battle at the Wakefield Park
Circuit, Sydney, beating a field of more than 25 participants from
the Sydney race fraternity. Cars entered for the time trial
included Mitsubishi EVO9’s, Nissan Skylines, and BMWs, Honda
Integras, Nissan S13, S15, Subaru STi’s, and Lotus Exige. The
Australian drivers included some very experienced ones, including
one of the top five-rated race and rally drivers in Australia.
This is the story as narrated by Ian:-
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I arrived in Sydney Australia on
the Sunday evening of November 26th on a mission, which was to
drive a Mitsubishi Evolution 9 RS Edition for a time trial event.
The invitation came from Bel Garage, one of the tuning firms in
Sydney. Straight from the pick-up at the airport, I was whisked
away to Bel Garage where my latest weapon was introduced to me.
That was when Brian, head of operations for Bel Garage briefed me
that we were entered for Sydney’s AutoSalon Circuit Battle in
Wakefield Park Circuit.
The event was a time trial race held in conjunction with
Sydney’s Autosalon (an automotive exhibition) with the quest to
find the fastest street car on a race track. Modifications are
limited, and only ‘semi slick’ tires were permissible. Cars
are let out on to the race track one at a time and are only given
one timed lap. It is very much like the F1 method of qualifying
and is also known as ‘Time Attack’ Race. Cars do one ‘out’
lap, followed by one ‘timed’ lap, and finish off with a
‘cooling down’ lap.
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My weapon was a
brand spanking new Evo9 RS. The owner of the car, Coog Costa had
just bought it new. He had other cars in his garage, and the Evo9
was his ‘playing’ car. The Wakefield circuit, located some
300kms from Sydney City, is about 3.0 kilometres long, and is
mostly flat. The corners are banked and there are several
‘off-camber’ turns. Arriving on Sunday night in Australia, and
then traveling 300 km to the track to test on Monday afternoon was
really hectic; to do well in a new car, and on a new circuit
seemed to be an uphill task for me. |
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When we got to the track, I took the car out for
a couple of laps to get a feel of it, and found that it had not
been set-up properly, and then they told me that it had not been
tested either, having just come from the workshop after the mods
had gone in.
Over the next three laps, I played with the tyre pressure
settings, and the suspension settings. It was quite difficult, on
account of my not being familiar with the track, besides not
having any prior experience driving an EVO9. All we managed were
some minor adjustments in the two hours of testing time we were
allowed. All in all, I managed about five full laps.
My lap times were not fantastic, about a second off the pace, but
I suppose it was acceptable, considering that it was a new circuit
and an untested car. We made our way back to BelGarage to prepare
for the Circuit Battle Showdown on Wednesday.
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On Wednesday morning, the day of the Circuit
Battle, when we got to the track, word had got around that an
Asian boy from a foreign country driving a Mitsubishi Evolution
9RS was very quick on Monday’s testing. I felt a little strange
with all the people staring at me when I walked around the pit
area; most of them must have thought I was Japanese, because they
kept on nodding their heads each time they spoke to me. Word gets
around quickly in Sydney as there are only the few garages that
are known for building fast Mitsubishi Evos.
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Finally it was my turn to do my
timed run. Feeling anxious and excited at the same time, I
could sense the crowd waiting to see what this Asian boy
could do. The pit wall was getting pretty crowded, lined
with other teams wanting to size up the competition do. It
was show time, when the talking stops and the action has to
begin.
On my out lap, the tyres were cold, and so were the brakes;
I weaved left and right, and braked a few times to get the
tyre and brakes heated up. Coming up to the last turn of
Wakefield, I would soon be across the start/finish line to
start my timed run. I gunned it to get a clean run up to the
front straight. The car fired up like a kangaroo had given
it a big kick as I passed the front straight.
Going into the turns I was clean and
smooth; when it came to turn 7, a very sharp hairpin corner,
I thought that was charging in a little too quickly. I also
knew that this was going to be a fast run, as I had exited
from Turn 6 at 6800rpm on 4th gear, but I was carrying a
little too much speed into the next corner. I braked, but it
was too late; the car under steered on the exit, losing a
few precious tenths of seconds. I carried on, trying to make
up time for my mistake, and finally passed the front
straight and the electronic time transponder that caught my
time. Heading back to the pits, I was rather annoyed with my
mistake. However, when I got out of the car, my race crew
was jumping around excitedly, and they told me that we had
clocked the fastest time of 1m 07sec. It was not time to
celebrate yet, as there was one more timed session left.
Even with the mistake we were FTD, amazing! |
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Almost
immediately, what seemed to be the entire pit lane was swarming
around the car, to check out what we had under the hood. It was
mainly stock other than the ‘panda bear’ doors, which are made
of carbon fibre, a Ralliart Rollcage, Computer Management System,
Race Suspension, and Semi Slicks. The engine was not modified as
the car had been brand new not so long ago and only had 3000Km on
the car. Now that we had clocked the fastest time of the day, I
basked a little in the glory of the moment. Of course, Brian had
to tell them, truthfully this time, that I was Malaysia. It was
rather funny as before that, Brian had told everybody that he had
found me in Chinatown, selling rice. From then on, I was known as
the Malaysian Rice Boy!
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Going into
timed session two, I was the last car out, a privilege given to
the fastest car. Knowing that I was leading the pack, and also
knowing that I actually had some reserve (from my mistake in Turn
7), I was quite free of any pressure. Up to after the last car had
gone out to do the second timed run, my original first run time
was still unbeaten. Technically, we had won the time trail, but I
still went out for educational purposes, and tried to beat my own
time. However, windy conditions had stuffed the track with sand
and dirt, and I managed to improve by only half a second. We still
clocked the fastest time of the day, and beat an entire field of
seasoned drivers on Wakefield Circuit. The second fastest car was
the Porsche GT3 Cup Car, and he was 2 full seconds behind me with
1m09scs. Everyone else was just too far away to catch us.
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The prize presentation was held
in Sydney’s Olympic Park in conjunction with the Autosalon
Show 2006. Many thanks to the crew of Brian and Bel Garage,
consisting of Eddie, Matt, Adam, Chen, Caine, Coog &
Dave for allowing me a chance to drive the Evo9RS in
Autosalon’s Circuit Battle. Now BelGarage has the bragging
rights, a Rice Boy from Malaysia came back with great
memories. -end- |
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