GRA Nationals Autocross Championships Round 3, 2013
GRA or also known as Grass Racing Autosports ran their third round of their exciting series in Bukit Jalil Stadium over the weekend. GRA is partnered by Red Line Oil, Mazda, Ghee Hiang Teelseed Oil, Arospeed, Vanli Genuine Parts, Bardahl , PG Perma Glass, Heritage Village, Motorsports Playground, Gopher GPS, Whiteline Flat Out and Euroscale. The series is in its 8th year and is sanctioned by the Motorsports Association of Malaysia.
Round 3 was an interesting one with the rain just knocking on the drivers’ doors the whole Sunday. Ivan Khong returned with his Red Line Subaru Impreza and was hoping for rain with his rain dance, but unfortunately his dance was not enough to please the gods.
The course layout was setup by Ian Khong, ambassador to GRA and a veteran in motorsports . ‘ The course layouts in GRA can come in many variations and sometimes it benefits the faster and more powerful cars and sometimes it doesn’t. This weekend’s layout is pretty balanced but more beneficial to the smaller cars!’ said Ian.
Bermaz Motors Sdn Bhd the distributors and importers of Mazda vehicles in Malaysia had the Mazda BT50 on display and CX-5 doing the safety laps around the course before the drivers took centre stage. Mazda’s involvement in grassroot level motorsports is a good step in encouraging more youths to enjoy motorsports in a safe and legal environment. Powered by the iconic Zoom-Zoom insignias on the Mazda BT-50, they had their Race Queens doing photo shoots with the fans and drivers.
In Class OD, Christopher Chong in his Mazda Miata with Red Line & Arospeed livery took 1st in the class with Mickey Teoh in his MRS taking 2nd and Ivan Khong trailed them in 3rd. Christopher powered his Mazda Miata around the donuts in superb fashion and also took the fastest Mazda award for the day. There were two other Miatas chasing for the title in Round 3 comprising of Vincent Tan and Steve Kok. Not only did Christopher take 1st in his class, he also took 3rd Overall in Round 3.
In Class OB ( 1501cc-1600cc ), Charlie Ling in his Toyota Starlet KP61 took 1st in his class with Ahmad Tabeh and Ray Leong taking 2nd and 3rd respectively. It was Charlie’s first win in the class, and his fast times also took him to 2nd Overall in Round 3. It is the oldest car to have taken 2nd Overall in GRA’s history of running autocrossing events. 1st Overall went to Mitch Chong in a Proton Satria MIVEC.
In Class OA, Tan Say Hin and Vava Loh both in Proton Satrias, took 1st and 2nd in their class. In the production class the fastest lady of the day went to Sharina Ramlie in a Perodua Kelisa 1.0. Sharina travels up from Terengganu with her husband and three kids to every GRA. She was introduced into autocrossing by her husband Azwan Zulkifli who also competes in GRA. It is amazing to see this enthusiastic family travel 400km just to participate in GRA.
GRA runs all their races in the Klang Valley, and spectators watch for free. GRA is the only surviving and longest running sanctioned autocrossing event in the country. For more details of this exciting series log onto www.grassracingautosports.com
