Andy Kow Wins at High Speed GRA RD 3 Autocross
Sepang International Circuit, 7 September 2008 – Andy Kow romped home to an overall victory in the third round of the GRA Grass Racing Autocross Championships 2008, held at the Sepang International Circuit today. Clocking a best time of 1 minute 48.998 seconds, and a cumulative time of 3 minutes 38.500 seconds over two best runs out of a total of five runs, Andy, piloting a Subaru Impreza won by 6.587 seconds over Jason Foo in a Proton Satria. Third place honours went to Ray Leong in a Nissan 200SX 1.8 Turbo, clocking a total time of 3:46.471, less than a second and a half behind Jason who clocked 3: 45.087.
Noticeably absent was Ivan Khong, whose work commitments saw him away in Johore Baru on this fine Sunday at a time when all his friends were having fun on the fastest autocross circuit ever designed by Grass Racing Autosports, the promoter and organizer of the Grass Racing Autocross Championship Series, which is in its third year running.
A total of fifty-six competitors gathered at the car park outside of the Sepang International Circuit at 0900 hours this morning, where GRA had set up a 1.67 kilometre autocross circuit. Said Jiannin Low, Clerk of Course for the event, “This circuit is definitely the longest and the fastest autocross circuit that we have ever had. Although it is tight in some places, and we have the regular ‘roundabouts’ and chicanes, the more powerful cars can hit a maximum of up to 150 km/h on the long straights. We planned it this way to give our very supportive competitors more variety and opportunities to improve themselves.”
“We have been running this Autocross Championship Series for three years now, and whilst most of our competitors started as novice drivers three years ago, many of them have developed and honed their driving skills, up to a point that some are ready to compete at higher levels. In fact some of our early competitors have moved up to racing in the MME and other events.” she added.
The Grass Class event, meant for newcomers to the sport, was run in the morning, followed by the Pro Grass event, for seasoned campaigners in the afternoon. The weather was kind, being overcast for most of the day, but fortunately without rain, although the area had been deluged with heavy downpours during the past few days.
In the Grass Class for novice drivers, the competitors were given 5 runs, and the awards were based on the best timed run. Wong Kang Yoon won the Class A (up to 1300 cc) award with a fastest time of 2:03.841 in his 1.3 litre Iswara Aeroback, from Jonathan Tan in a 1.3 litre Perodua Myvi. Jonathan clocked a fastest time of 2:06.423. Charlene Khoo drove well in her 1.0 litre Kelisa to take third place in the class with 2:07.592.
In the Grass Class for up to 1600 cc, Garick Goh in a Proton Satria 1.6 drove with great skill to pip Charlie Ling in a Toyota AE86, coincidentally painted in the same white and black colours as the famous movie featuring the bean curd delivery boy, clocking a fastest time of 1:55.768, versus Ling’s time of 1:56.594. Almost three seconds adrift was Julian Foo in another Satria 1.6.
New to the sport was Ariff, who drove another white and black bean curd delivery Toyota AE86. Ariff is a regular drift driver, and he gave everybody a great show, sliding and drifting through all the corners, but using up precious time while doing so. The name of the game is getting the fastest time, where you ‘drift for show, but drive for dough’. Anyway, we hope to see more of Ariff next time, because from the beaming grin on his face after each run, we know he had a great time.
There is also a category for automatics up to 1.5 litre, and this was won by William Lim in a Suzuki Swift clocking 1:57.912, easily beating Edison Wong in a Toyota Vios by more than 5 seconds. In a separate category for automatics up to 2.0 litre, Victor Lim in a Ford RS clocking 2:01.214 won from Chee Tun Poey in a Corolla Altis 1.8.
Fastest female driver award went to Charlene Khoo, while the Blink-Blink car award was conferred upon Mickey Teoh. As usual, Mickey had problems with his MR2 Turbo, and had to change cars to his MRS in the middle of the competition. A special “Best Grass Courage Award was given to Mitch Chong for trying to prove his Satria 1.8 was stronger than the concrete kerb. The score at the Sepang Autocross circuit stands at Kerb 1: Satria 0.
Making a comeback to motor sport was Mohan Balasingam, who used to race and rally in the mid 1980’s. Due to my turning down an invite to drive Ivan’s car while he was away, Mohan took honours for ‘ODD’ (Oldest Driver of the Day). Mohan brought along his brother, and shared a Subaru STI with him. We shall be seeing more of Mohan in future events.
The next event is scheduled for mid October. Keep your eyes on this site for more.
