One-On-One With The Honda Malaysia Racing Team

Racing requires as much dicipline and dedication as it requires effort, experience and of course, money. Honda is one of the few manufacturers in the world that lives and breaths racing and has been at it ever since Mr. Soichiro Honda first decided that racing is their ‘reason to exist’. Today, nearly 40 years on, Honda boasts one of the most successful and admirable racing team in the history of motor racing.

That alone commands respect, but when Honda picks out employees from random departments within its organization and takes them racing, it makes you wonder what they were thinking. Race experience is important to make it to the top of motorsports but that may not always be so as Honda has proven. The Japanese automaker takes it employees racing because there are many elements in racing that are applicable in one’s daily and working life.

So while it took me three hours to get through KL traffic and torrential rain just to get to the launch party, I managed to nab an interview with the key members of the HMRT courtesy of Honda’s PR team. It may seem like just another interview, but like I’ve mentioned before, they are in no way race bred professionals, they are in fact your regular staff that attend to you, or your Honda.

They are Syaril Azmi - Team Manager for car 26, Sunita Prabhakaran - Chief Time Logger, Shamsul Hassan - Chief Mechanic for car 26, Kumar Thayalakumaran - Engine Engineer for car 26 & 27 and Wan Yee Leong - Chief Pit Wall.

Here are their own takes on their usual and race duties:

“My name is Syaril. I am the Team Manager for Car 26. What I do daily (in my job at the plant) is that I manage operations in the CVJ tech team that produces the driveshaft. I handle the daily operations, ensuring quality product for delivery. Then as the Team Manager for Car 26, I started with the build-up of the vehicle; and then as for the race, strategizing for the race. As you know, this is an endurance race, we have to drive for 12 hours straight. Each driver can only drive for 75 minutes, the strategizing and planning part of it is what I do during the race.”

“My name is Sunita. In Honda Malaysia, I am in the Customer Relations Department; and in particular I deal with dealers, getting them to be aware of customer relations activities. In HMRT, prior to the race, I am in the sponsor team. My job is to go out to look for sponsors. During the race, I am the Chief Time Logger with two other members. It has been a totally different environment for me; what I am doing in HMRT is very different from my daily job.”  Sunita is new to the team. First-time HMRT member.

Shamsul – “I work in Maintenance in the Honda factory whereby my task is to ensure that the machines are functioning properly every day. In HMRT, I am the Chief Mechanic for Car 26. We have improved the car for MME 2008 to be of the same specs as Car 27 which was built in Japan.”
Shamsul is a veteran. He has been with HMRT for 5 years.

“Kumar from Dealer Technical Support. In my daily work, I support all the Honda dealers in technical matters, solving complex problems. In HMRT, I am the Engine Engineer for both cars – Car 26 and Car 27. My task is to ensure smooth engine operations during practice.”
Kumar had the opportunity to go Japan for training under HMRT last year.

“Wan Yee Leong – in Melaka plant, my task is as a Technical Specialist to build up new Honda associates and guide them in daily skills training in production. During the MME race this year, I am the Chief Pit Wall. My job is to ensure every lap is timed and recorded so that we can plan the strategies.”

Click here for the rest of the interview