With already a win under their belt in the opening round, team Pentagon Racing is ready to face the challenge once again in the Round 2 of the 2015 Malaysia Championship Series. But things are not going to be any easier for the team as they would have to go through a number of hurdles before even having a glimpse of the podium itself.
Aside from having more competitors like Mark Darwin joining in the Touring Production mayhem, being the champion of the previous round meant that they would have to carry a set of weight ballast on board. The extra 30kg as required by the regulations did not only hunkered the Honda Civic FD2R racecar down, but at the same time upsets the handling of the car, forcing the team to make some urgent adjustments onto their fine-tuned machine.
The adjustments made did not really make the car any better as explained by Alan Wong where the team struggled to keep up with the pace throughout the weekend. After the qualifying session, they were only able to clock a best time of 2:31.925, placing them on the 13th spot on the grid.
Then again as racers, Alan Wong and Chris Tan knew too well that it is still early to give up and anything could happen in the race itself. With a car that is still functioning, team Pentagon Racing is still in the running to collect some championship points, or better, a spot on the podium.
Lining up as the first driver, the bit of luck the duo were looking for came in the form of a massive pile up in the opening lap on Turn 3, taking out several cars from both TP and MTC. During this commotion, Alan was able to steer the car into safety and at the same time gain some valuable positions along the way.
Keeping the pace with consistent lap times, a smooth pit stop saw Chris taking the wheels of the FD2R and taking Pentagon Racing to an amazing third place finish. Although it seems too good to be true, it also could have ended badly as Alan explained that Chris was practically rolling through the chequered flag as there were issues with the engine.
But apparently that was yet the end of the story as with the disqualification of car #70 from its second place finish, Pentagon Racing had actually finished in second position in the Touring Production category, further extending their lead in the Malaysia Championship Series with 42 points in the bag.
