5 hours drive to Alor Setar and another 5 hours back after a full day of racing sure is taking it’s toll on us, but the adrenaline is keeping us going as we made our way back to KL to compete in the Speed Fest event the next day. Yes, we are mad like that.
We started our journey the day before at 8.30pm and arrived in Alor Setar at 2am as we had to make a few stops to deliver some parts to our friends in Penang. Found the hotel and with only 4hours of sleep, we head over to the Taman Jubli Emas to set-up for the day. TiTAN Suspension invested in a canopy for us to bring along and boy, it definitely came to good use shielding us from the heat as the event organizers didn’t allocate any shelters for us.
By 10am, most of the participants have arrived and got ourselves ready for the day’s competition after a short long winded briefing by the marshals. 80% of his speech was about selling his next events which we felt should have been done at the end of the race and not constantly being reminded over the course of the day.
Qualifying for the finals started at 1pm after the teams are allowed to practice on the circuit and the top 16 was arranged in such a way that the Northern drivers battled it out among themselves while the rest of us from KL and around battle among ourselves. It should have been done at random OR arranged from top to bottom based on the qualifying time, to allow a more fair battle as the top 8 drivers wouldn’t be facing each other even before getting to the top 8 IMHO.
There wasn’t even a battle royale for the 3rd and 4th positioning (even thought they told us there was one after the semi-finals), at least inform us so we don’t waste our time prepping the car for something that won’t happen. We could have packed up earlier and relax too instead of waiting around until they suddenly announce for the battle for 1st and 2nd place to get to the starting line. We wondered whatever happened to the 3rd/4th position battle? Shouldn’t that be before the 1st/2nd battle?
The event wise on the overall was IMHO well done, simple but good. BUT the gymkhana section of the event was just poorly executed. It could have been done better with a proper working timing system as quite a number of disgruntled drivers felt they were being pushed around for a ride whenever the timing system failed and there was no flags from the marshals to stop the qualifying.
Overall, the [b] Racing Team had a great time at the event, meeting new friends from the northern region, especially the FSeries boys that was so accommodating to us and the interest by the locals regarding our cars and our sponsors’ products. We took home 3rd spot for the Gymkhana event but the winning moment for us is the bonding we have with all the fellow racers there even though most of us (except for the KL boys) just knew each other on the day itself. Photos from the event is at the following Facebook Album! Next up, the Speedfest event!
