First a little refresher, the first round of the eagerly contested MPT Sprint/Supersprint 2008 series took place on the 23rd of February 2008 and went on from 4.30pm till midnight. It took place at the Kallang Car Park ‘F’, Singapore and featured what every other Motorsports event seems to feature these days, a highly detuned version of Miss World in this case called; Race Queen Search 2008.
For the first time the Kallang Sprint Race was held at night (apparently night races are the in-thing in Singapore now) and started in the late afternoon instead of the usual early morning. It was a “cosy affair†though whether or not the cosiness was intended is debatable. Mr Koh Aik Leong, Managing Director of MPT Motor acknowledged the fact that the festive season and the Sepang Track Day which was held on the same day, could be the factors for the smaller crowd.
But as always, where there are cars racing, there surely is a crowd and as soon as the sun went down and the headlights came on, the Singaporean crowd was out in numbers (told you it’s a in-thing).
The races were excitingly tense as drivers fought to get their machines past the menacingly high road dividers that car parks use. The racers competed in various classes (listed below) in cars that we are all quite familiar with; EVO, WRX, EK, EG, DC5. So that and the competition classes provided an equal platform for drivers to do the talking rather than their machines, and trust me, you could differentiate the men from the boys. A big congratulations to the Champion of the 2wd class, Eddie Ng who blasted his way past greater machines like the DC-5 Type R and other EG’s just like his. Another big congratulations goes out to the Champion of the 4wd class, Wong Teck Yew who in his Evo-8 MR-RS tamed other drivers racing in Evo 9 GTs, Evo 5s and WRXs.
While the men did their thing, the ladies strut their stuff in the Race Queen Search where 21 fine young ladies auditioned for a place in the semi-finals, and sadly only16 have been selected to move on to the semis. We here at zerotohundred always believe that the more girls at an event, the better, but sadly the spirit of true competition speaks otherwise. But the organizers seem to have come up with a way to retain every last girl as possible, with the introduction of the Wild Card round at the next Sprint/Supersprint round, the girls as well as new-comers (applications are open till April 24th) will get a final chance to show us what they got and we’ll be there to show you what they got.
So with the conclusion of a successful Round One even in the face of challenging factors like the reduction in visibility, Round Two (26th April, Kallang, Car Park F) promises much more excitement as top racers like Lester Wong and Desmond Soh will be there to showcase their skills. There will also be a demo run by the revived ‘zilla, the Nissan GT-R which is yet to be officially launched in Singapore or Malaysia.
Terms in Motorsports:
Drag / Sprint Racing: A drag race is an acceleration contest from a standing start between two vehicles over a measured distance. The accepted standard for that distance is either a quarter-mile (402m) or an eighth-mile (201m).
Supersprint: An additional figure-of-8 pattern is included in the straight-line race course. This tests the driver’s manoeuvering skills and vehicle performance abilities.
Singapore Motorsports The governing body for all motorsports racing held in Association of Singapore: Singapore. SMSA has been vested with exercising sporting power by the FIA, CIK-FIA and the FIM.
DNS / DNF Did Not Start / Did Not Finish – due to vehicle complexities or failures, or did not meet the required safety or technical standards during scrutineering.
F.T.D / F.T.N: Sub-award. The Fastest Timing of the Day / Night. Timing is abstracted from the overall results of all Classes.
F.T.Y: Sub-award. The Fastest Timing of the Year. Timings are kept in record for the entire year.
Knockout: Sub-award. Top 4 fastest cars in each category (2WD/4WD) compete in the knockout stage.
Class: Classification of categories in terms of engine capacity.
Sprint / Supersprint Classifications:
SuperSprints
Class 1 Up to 1600cc 2WD
Class 2 1601cc to 2000cc 2WD
Class 3 2001cc to 2500cc 2WD
Class 4 Above 2500cc 2WD
Class 5 Up to 3500cc 4WD
Class 6 Above 3500cc 4WD
Class 7 Group A/N All capacities – SMSA Championship point
Sprints
Class 11 Up to 1600cc 2WD
Class 12 1601cc to 2000cc 2WD
Class 13 2001cc to 2500cc 2WD
Class 14 Above 2500cc 2WD
Class 15 Up to 3500cc 4WD
Class 16 Above 3500cc 4WD
Class 17 Unlimited All capacities
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