Malaysian Driver Makes it in Australian Time Trial
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:-
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.
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.
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.
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.
Race day, first out on track was the favourite, Glenn, in a Porsche GT3 Cup Car. He is one of the top 5 drivers in Australia and one of the top contenders in the Dutton Tarmac Rallies. The rest of the field followed, one, by one. Every one was curious as to what times were being set, but no official times were announced. What we had was some kind of unofficial grapevine times, taken by fans and crew.
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!
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!
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.
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.
