The GAB RACING SPEEDFEST.MY TIME ATTACK CHALLENGE was held on 3rd March 2013 at the ELITE PLUS SPEEDWAY CIRCUIT. This event was initially targeted as a grassroots event but as the crowd got bigger, some big names like Matthew Smith, the ASIAN CLASSIC CAR CHALLENGE champion, Mickey Teoh and a whole lot of others took this event to another level. Speedfest.my’s aim was to make free motorsports the norm for grassroots events. However, due to lack of sponsorship funding, the event was almost scrapped until RSONE AUTO PARTS SDN BHD, the people behind GAB Suspension, RADICAL CHASSIS SOLUTIONS SDN BHD, and MADDRIVERS GARAGE the people behind the RAPID STOP range of brake products got together to give the boost needed to get the event going.
Registration was open until 9am on the day of the event, and much to our surprise, a total of 44 people registered to take part in the five classes available. As the track was a pretty tight one, horsepower was not king for the day. The drivers were divided into class A,B,C,D and E.
The day started off with all the cars running on the track at the same time. This went on for a good 10 minutes for the drivers to get to know the track. The race format was simple. Timing was started from the time the car took off till it crossed the start / finish line. Whoever posted the fastest lap in their class was declared the winner. A chicane was placed along the back of the track to keep speeds down to prevent any accidents.
Class A drew the most entries. Any car below 1600cc with a manual transmission was grouped into this class. A total of 23 cars ranging from a Perodua Kancil, driven by Matthew Smith, an old school Mini, a Corolla KE70 and the usual suspects of Satria, Satria Neo, Myvi, Swift Sport and a lone EF Civic took part.
Winner of the class was Mohd Azman aka black baron in his Satria 1.3 that clocked a time of 0.5890. hot on his heels was Tommy Ho in a Satria Neo with the time of 0.5953 and coming in third was Ridhuan Ramlee in another Satria Neo with a time of 1.0125.
Class B was for cars below 1600cc with an automatic transmission. There were 2 Sagas, one Wira, one Waja and a Citroen Xsara. The winner of this class was Syed Dzulkarnain in a Saga with a time of 1.0441. Second place went to Ong Jun Hui in a Wira with a time of 1.08 flat and in third place was Wan Norhafizan in a Saga FLX with a time of 1.0872
Things started getting interesting in Class C. This was for cars above 1600cc with a manual transmission. There were 2 Satria 1.8s, 2 Nissan S15, a Toyota MRS turbo, a Mazda MX5, a Honda S2000 and the lone Inspira. The winner of this class was Mitch Chong, who brought in his smoking Satria 1.8 in 0.5782, the overall fastest time of the day. Next came Mickey Teoh in his turbocharged MRS in a time of 0.59 flat and third place went to Yong Kok Kit in a super loud Satria GTI with a time of 0.5934.
Class D was for cars above 1600cc with an automatic transmission. It was won by Nicholas Leong in a time of 1.0365. Coming in second was Ng Khang Chun in a VW Jetta in a time of 1.0428, and in third place was Kamahlaan in a Forte 2.0 with a time of 1.0609.
Class E was for track / non production cars and it was a race between a buggy built by Brian Palmer of Inter Formula Sdn Bhd and a track prepared Satria GTI. In the hands of an experienced Rod Anders, the buggy came in first in a time of 1.0001. Hafiz Isa came in second in the GTI with a time of 1.02 flat, and young Matthew Salleh brought the buggy back in a time of 1.0384.
It was a really good day for racing. All the drivers had an average of eight timed laps until the clouds gave way, flooding parts of the track which forced the timed laps to stop due to safety concerns. And from the results, one could see that it was not the most powerful car, but pure driving skills that won the day. At the end of the day, Speedfest.my found that after deducting costs and expenses, they made a small profit. The guys at Speedfest.my decided that part of the money earned from the event was to go to a good cause. After some consideration, they decided to give rm700.00 to the MALAYSIAN INDEPENDENT ANIMAL RESCUERS, a non-profit entity that rescues hurt or abandoned animals with the aim of bringing them back to health and finding a home for them.
Speedfest.my’s second event is scheduled for the 5th of May, and they are still looking for sponsors so that they can achieve their original goal, which is to make Motorsports free in grassroots events. More info on the events can be found on Speedfest.my’s Facebook page.
