Set to redeem themselves with a better position, team RT-ROWE Pentagon Racing returns to Sepang International Circuit for the second round of the 2014 Malaysia Super Series. With the car now sorted out of the bugs that plagued the team back in Round 1, Chris Tan and Alan Wong are ready to show their worth in the race-prepped Honda Civic Type-R.
“Back in Round 1, we had some mechanical issues and we have fixed them in preparation for this round. We did some testing on the car and all is good. Hopefully the car will perform a good qualifying and we hope to be on the podium the next day”, said Chris.
With the proper adjustments done to the car and a fine weather to back them up, the team had managed to post up a 2:33.050 during the qualifying session, putting them just behind the pole sitter of Gilbert Ang with a 2:33.013.
Unlike the format used in Round 1, the race in Round 2 will run in a 50-minute endurance format. Pairing up with Chris Tan is his teammate, Alan Wong, who took the role as the first driver for the race. Facing some difficulties during the start of the race, Alan had some troubles with the pace car that had caused them to lose a couple of places during the start of the race.
“The rolling start was quite bad because I had to follow the pace car and it slowed down and I cannot overtake him. By the time I slowed down to avoid myself from overtaking him, the lights turned green. So those in third and fourth position overtook us, dropping us to fifth position”, said Alan.
“It took me about three laps to get back to the preferred position. After that, it was quite hard to defend the position because the tires had heated up while I was trying to overtake them. It was a very tough race because there was not even one lap that I could relax,” he added.
Although their pit stop was timed nicely, it may have been slightly longer than the pursuing Damien, in which allowed them to immediately close the gap when the race resumed. After a bumper-to-bumper action for a few laps, Damien eventually took over the lead and crossed the checkered flag first while still being followed closely by Chris.
Team RT-ROWE Pentagon Racing secured the second spot on the podium for the Touring Production class after 18 laps of racing and a very close gap of 0.837 seconds from Damien Dielenberg/Tommy Lee in first position in the Honda Integra DC5.
