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Saturday, 10 September 2005
Rise and shine boys, rise and shine! Boys?? Wake up!
The morning started early for me, odd for a Saturday – day of rest (well, most of the time anyways!). The magnetic pull of SIC and the anticipation of hearing the intake roar at 7,000rpm, sound of screeching tires and smell of burning clutch and brake pads were enough to get me out of bed, on time. That however, wasn’t enough to wake a few who were originally part of the convoy. Stanley, my partner-in-crime, in fact, didn’t wake at all! Hah, the fun he’d miss! Congregating at Center Point, Bandar Utama, the four Satria R3s driven by Sanjoi, prozac aka Rizal, jakuzeeman aka Andrew and I, later met up with one other - buahdurian, at Dengkil Shell station, just a couple of clicks away from the circuit.
We drive the fastest production Proton. Why in hell are we late?
Much delayed due to waiting for different people then taking turns to pump our tires to stock specified pressure, it didn’t help that I led the convoy past the turn-off to SIC. Idiot. Caffeine needed badly, no doubt. Rang prozac on the phone and all he said was “Ok, make a U-turn at KLIA, double time, double time!”. And off we went, at full throttle, clock read 8.30pm. We were late!
We arrived with much glee, though slightly embarrassed to be late. If it was any consolation, the party didn’t start yet. And we weren’t exactly the latest. Heh. Parked behind the main pit building was an astonishing sight (”astonishing”, pun intended!) of Gen.2s parked orderly in a few rows, varying from stock-looking to flashy, with menacing bodykits, GT rear wings and all. Nice. Never seen that many Gen.2s in a flock like that before. Somehow, it all looked right. Almost perfect.
Meeting the crew
Not too far off were of course, the half dozen “black stallion” Satria R3s and a lone Satria GTi. I greeted the familiar R3 faces including Head of R3 Marketing Khaidi, marketing extraordinaire Faisal, media manager Amin, R&D and Product Development fellows Boon, Azman and Faidzil (who is also Satria GTi Production Car champ 2003, by the way), R3 technicians Seng, Aizudin, Tamrin and Sohaimi. They, plus many hardworking R3 track marshalls were all there. Perfect.
And so it begins…
The day started with registration, then a short briefing on safety, proper sitting and steering position, and flag-reading. We were later divided into groups, total of five overall, spearheaded by race instructors – Faidzil, Djan, Adian, Khaidi and Osman. I was lumped together with Jordan, owner of the solo SGTi, Andrew and 3 Gen.2 owners, one from Singapore.
The groups drove in convoy for the track familiarisation session, a leisurely-paced session with one of the R3 race cars up front. Two race Satrias and Wajas spearheaded the various groups, and the FR Waja monster was kept safely in the pits. Khaidi led us through the turns, showing us proper racing lines and braking points. Traffic was occasionally heavy with some passing track cars and a pack of Lotus Elises, coupled with our convoys crowding the track at different sectors.
A short break for breakfast ensued, and it was definitely a welcome feature indeed, some of us really starving for some good old-fashioned Malaysian breakfast of nasi lemak and teh tarik! Filled up, we trotted down to the pitlane, back into our cars for another run, this time round, faster paced. That’s more like it! As we picked up the pace, I began to feel accustomed to the track once again, although driving quite a different beast. The Stage 2 car feels and performs characteristically different from its stock Stage 1 origin. Torquey and responsive, I found myself able to pull out of turns faster and stronger, and ploughing on the straights in 3rd gear was brilliant! I found it strange at first to still be pulling in 3rd at 160km/h halfway on the straights, where I used to already be in 4th! And despite worn rear tires, the car felt very comfortable and confident, although somewhat more sensitive and direct in steering response due to the bumpsteer kit and new bushes.
Taxi! Taxi! Turn 9, please, thank you, on the double!
Free taxi rides in the race cars with the pro instructors at the helm was something not to be missed as participants queued for their 3-lap ride. The R3 boys even had some faux racing later part of the free run track session! Needless to say, a few passengers had quite a scare! 
No major untoward incidents except for one involving the Singaporean Gen.2 from my group, T-boned by an Elise. Quite an experience to swallow for a first-timer driving a 3-month old car, but the R3 crew were nice enough to offer help to repair some of the damage.
While we enjoyed the track session mostly, it was hampered by a 45-minute red flag incident, in which a car had to be towed out from gravel. Cutting track time by a huge margin, I made the most of it, going out on final runs with Andrew and Jordan as soon as the light turned green. I later gave Fiki a ride in my SR3. He urged me to brake late at every single turn! 
He later gave me some laps in his stock Subaru Impreza WRX STi, my first ever ride on an STi at SIC! Thanks bro! Thumbs up! Couldn’t help but feel shortchanged somewhat with the lack of track time, but the driver training that followed more than made up for it.
Mushy, squishy balls to Balls Of Steel!
There is no better way to exercise your threshold of courage, dignity and outright balls with driver training. After a heavy lunch, it was surprising nobody threw up. More a beginner to intermediate mini-defensive driving course, the training involved full throttle on 2nd gear straight, then balls-out hard braking to a complete stop in a designated ‘braking zone’. Once at a complete stop, a marshall would flag the car, and driver proceeds as quickly as he can through a chicane and slalom, then a final straight which ends up being another hard-braking fest.
There were a couple of test-runs then actual timed runs of 3 attempts per round. A total of 3 rounds completed the training. Times were recorded then reviewed by the instructor. Guidance and professional advise definitely helped many of us. Never had I braked so hard in my life, not self-induced and as deliberate as this anyways! We had lots of fun during the runs, attempting to induce maximum brake force without locking up the wheels was challenging!
There was lots of wheel-spinning action at launch for some, then screeching tires (and at times off-center, oversteery braking!) but we all came out alive, bigger, harder balled than before. I improved my times by as much as 3 seconds by the 2nd round. Practice and sound advice makes a hell of a difference.
A review of our times and performance was done over tea, followed by a chill-out session with eyes glued on screen watching the drift event held at Sepang that evening. For all of us, parting with the RM150 was well worth it. All in all a fun-filled, adrenalin-rushed, educational day. We left with new friends, new skills, bigger balls and the urge to return to Sepang again soon.
Kudos to the R3 team, and I believe I speak for everyone, when I say I expect a bigger, better version of the R3 Track Experience + Driver Training soon!
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