GRA Round 2, at Bukit Jalil
GRA or known as Grass Racing Autosports ran their 2nd round of their successful autocross series at Bukit Jalil Stadium. Partners for this season are Red Line Oils, Vanli Genuine Parts, PG Perma Glass, Meguiar’s, Maxxis Tires and Gophers GPS. Malaysia’s largest and longest running autocrossing community braved the haze over the weekend to put their skills to the test to see who was the fastest on the super big layout at Bukit Jalil.
Marcus Chye from Team Lotus Malaysia, took the field by storm after finding the groove that gave him the win in Round 1. Ivan Khong from Team Red Line, possibly Marcus’ closest rival, gave him a run for his money by leading the field after the first two timed runs. In the top three spots, it was a battle between Marcus, Ivan, and Andy Kow from Team Maxxis Motorsports.
On the fourth run, luck was not on Ivan’s side as his fuel pump failed, forcing a retirement. The surprise of the day came from Mickey Teoh in the Toyota MRS who took a podium placing after an absence of two years from GRA with a 3rd Overall. At the end of the day, it was Marcus taking first place in Overall Pro Grass with Mitch Chong in 2nd and Mickey in 3rd.
The day was filled with a light drizzle at the start of proceedings in the morning for the Grass Class drivers. The Grass Class refers to novices who are taking part in their first season of GRA. The Grass Class allows near stock condition cars with very limited modifications allowed. There is also an automatic transmission class that allows interested participants to enter with their regular automatic car.
Howard Goh from Team Red Line said, ‘The racing is very close and most of the top runners in the Open Class use our Red Line Shockproof series for better shifting’. It was no surprise that Red Line fielded a pretty strong line up of drivers with Ivan Khong leading the team with Christopher Chong, Ray Leong, and Kenneth Chiew. All the Red Line drivers have previous championship titles to their names.
PG PermaGlass Mr. Ong said, ‘I am very excited to see drift cars coming into the scene now as it shows that not only autocross cars can participate but drift cars have the same ability to do fast times as well’. PG PermaGlass runs a Proton Satria Neo driven by CB Sia who is constantly in the top 3 spots of his class.
Team Maxxis fielded in Andy Kow’s Subaru Impreza, and this time around Andy was able to push a bit more after having had a recent engine rebuild just before Round 1.
Team Vanli Genuine Parts, had William Lim and Benny Woo at the tracks, with William trouncing the competition by taking 1st in his class OA ( up to 1500cc ). It was a good run in the Vanli Swift as he was back in his uncatchable form.
Following closely in the title chase was Samuel Young and Mohd Azman, taking 2nd and 3rd respectively in Class OA.
In Pro-Grass OD Class, Dixon Khoo in his Subaru Impreza took 1st with Mohan Balasingam taking 2nd while Freddie Ang took 3rd. Coming in 4th was Gilbert Ang, sharing a Lotus Elise with brother Freddie Ang. The Angs were the youngest drivers of the day with both of them still not up to the minumim age required for a Malaysian driving license. GRA is sanctioned by the Motorsports Association of Malaysia and all drivers are required to have a racing license from MAM, and includes insurance coverage for the drivers during the race.
In Pro-Grass OD ( Beyond 2000cc ), Marcus took 1st with Mickey Teoh and Ee Yoong Cherng in 2nd and 3rd spot. Making a comeback to GRA, Mickey also posted the 2nd fastest time of the day(FTD).
In Class OB ( 1500cc – 1600cc )the battle was between Ken Erai, Ray Leong and Charlie Ling. It was Ken that took the win at the end of the day. Class OC ( 1601cc – 2000cc ) saw a fierce battle between Mitch Chong and Sim Kian Teng, both in 1800cc Protons. Mitch in his stripped down Satria took the win, with Sim trailing in 2nd spot.
Johan Wong from Meguiar’s said, ‘ The driver’s of GRA are a pretty large community, and looking at today’s early morning rain, our products will certainly benefit the drivers to get rid of the dirt after an entire day of racing!’
The Bukit Jalil stadium demands a very different style of autocrossing / gymkhana event with cars being able to use up a lot of the tarmac. Ian Khong, the GRA Ambassador who sets the course each time, always makes it look simple till one drives on it. For more information of this exciting series, do log onto www.grassracingautosports.com for further details.
