The R3gister - Race Rally Research (R3)

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by Ivan Khong aka DarkHelmet

1st of all, Congrats to R3, T.Djan, Faidzil, D.French for dominating the race. Of course, they will not be there if it wasn’t for the race crew, Faisal, Adian, Seng, Delloyd, Azman, Osman aka ‘Drift’ Man and the rest.

As to my stint in the race, I was 3rd driver in the Satria GTI, which other 2 drivers are Admi Shahrul and Khaidi. We were sponsored by Menara KL, as the main sponsor, and R3 built the car, and supported us technically for the whole duration.

Qualifying
Admi did a 2.41s during 1st qualifying
Khaidi did a 2.45s, with half the track being wet
I did a 2.45s, with half track wet

So, with an aggregate time of 2.43s, we qualified 8th in Class B, 16th on grid! With some Class O and A cars behind us, you can just imagine the chaos when the actual race starts.

So, the plan was, Admi starts, I take 2nd stint (I lost the rock,paper,scissors game with Khaidi), and Khaidi takes 3rd stint.

Time comes to start the race, and Admi starts off, but is overtaken by lots of cars, with one of the Petronas backed Satria leaning on our car in Turn 4, damaging the door and B pillar.

By the end of 1 hr 15 minutes, after the pit stop/driver change/fuel top up, we end up in 22nd position. And believe it or not, when I came out of the pits, it was like Federal Highway! Serious! There was a jam, coz the Safety Car was out, and everybody had to queue, no overtaking allowed. At certain points, we were standstill on the track. This went on for 2 laps. And I had a Honda Malaysia car on my rear bumper.

At the back straight, I saw the marshall, take down the Safety Car sign, and reach for the Green Flag/Sign. Immediately, I gunned the throttle and overtook a couple of cars which drivers was caught off guard.

I followed the faster cars through the corners, but got overtaken by the faster cars in the front straight, and by the time we got to Turn 1, it was like a traffic jam, cars jostling for positions, trying to block and pass others at the same time.

Remember I said is like Federal Highway? Well…. it was like this for the next 1 hr. Luckily, years of driving on Federal Highway, following ambulances and fire trucks paid off, as the faster cars made their way thru the pack, the slower cars made way for them, and I slipped in-between and amongst them. And they call it ‘racecraft’, I call it ‘Follow Ambulance/VIP/Fire truck’ Method! So, following this method, I made my way up the field from 22nd in class, to 4th in class in 1 hr 10 mins. Hahahhaa….

Next up was Khaidi, which he started and half way thru, had to pit for rain tyres as rain came down in buckets. Khaidi and Admi maintained the lead and came my turn again. With the Silverstone rain tyres (fantastic in the rain), still raining at 5am, I went out. Cars were off the road, Yellow flags all over the track, with incidences of cars spinning into gravel and mud strewn onto the tarmac. Is really like Malaysian North South Highway now during a thunderstorm .. hahhahaha.

So, here I am, visibility on track reduced to 30m in front, front windscreen fogged up, car lights useless, track at night, cant see anything as I come barrelling down the straight. I cant see the left hand turns, like Turn 2, cant see apex, so agak agak only lor. Turn 5, cant clip inside as water puddles are there, turn 6 with the track shiny, it blends with the grass, as that is also wet and shiny, not to mention poor visibility thru windscreen. Turn 7, had to watch out for the kerbs on the left as an indicator when to start braking to start the turn in to Turn 7. Turn 9, the tight left hander, was also a challenge, as I could not see the turn as the windscreen was fogged up. It was like, power on the straight, brake, turn, and pray I dont climb the kerb or worse not turn enough and run wide into the grass. you dont want to touch the grass in the wet believe me! Turn 15 was the same.

We made up 2 places, as cars went off or crashed. Several incidences came up, with the Lotus Exige (not R3 car) hitting X1-R Satria on the straight and caused it to fly off the road and into a concrete barrier. Not a pretty sight.

There was this lap, in the dry, which I came charging down to Turn 9, I hit the brakes, hit an oil patch, as no grip, engine died I think, I saw NA Garage Putra MIVEC off on the grass, on the inside of Turn 9 facing me, and an EK Civic in the gravel straight on! Oh SHIT! I was going to rear end the Civic, and then I yanked the steering to the left, lifted off the brakes, front tyres caught some grip, I pulled the handbrake, car spun round 180 degrees, and I saw cars headlights coming towards me, my car rolling backwards, I can see the Turn 9 apex on my right, my rear end about to collide with the Civic’s rear end, I slotted into 1st gear and put pedal to the metal, with the LSD putting down the grip to the tyres, smoke coming from the wheelspin, I turned steering to the RIGHT to take Turn 9!!!!!! Whew!!!!!

After that incident, I am convinced that Motorsports is really DANGEROUS!

We maintained 2nd in class till about 9.30am morning. Then it was my turn to drive again. By this time, I had enough of driving. I had no problem staying up throughout the night, as Admi and Khaidi and the rest of the crew stayed up to finish the car till late for the last few days. I was the only one rested before the race. This Endurance race was nothing compared to what I went thru during my 4 day rally days.We slotted fresh full slicks even when the track was wet, sun was shining and we gambled that the track would dry up soon. our competitors were still on rain tyres. So, I set out, trying not to spin and to stay on the slippery black tarmac, waiting for the tyre to warm up. For the next 3 laps or so, I was taking turn 5 with opposite lock, turn 6 with opposite lock, and out of turn 8 with full opposite lock! Slowly, the tyres warmed up enough to do a full-on attack, but not before my pit crew put out the pit board for me to go FASTER! I was shouting out the window, ‘I AM!!!!’ Hahahhahaa…. and so, when the tyres were gripping, we were doing laps faster than the VTECs, ad I even managed to overtake a DC5, and mind you, the track was still wet.

So, here I was, hoping to close the gap to the 1st in class Satria, and to maintain our 2nd position. About 20 mins into my driving stint, I could not engage 3rd gear. It happened as I was upshifting to 3rd on the back straight, and so, I selected 4th, and used 2nd and 4th gear only. I pitted, and the crew could not find anything wrong, thinking that 3rd gear must have broke. I set out again, using 2nd and 4th gear, and only went out for 2 laps before i had to come in again as I could not even select 2nd gear. We traced th fault to a worn bush on the linkage, gearbox side. The only remedy was to change the entire cable, but that would have taken at least 30 mins. the crew effected a temporary solution and Khaidi took over the driving. Envisioned that the repair will not hold for long, the crew cut a small aluminium bush to slot in for the next driver change, and when khaidi came in, the crew sprang into action. Car was re-fueled, Admi jumped in, crew slotted the bush in, and off he went. Our lap times dropped to 2.51s, 10 sec down. Later I found out, power steering sprung a leak too, and we had no power assistance. We still could not select 3rd gear, and so, we soldiered on, and our position dropped to 6th in class.

Khaidi took the last hour of the drive and the gearbox finally broke, 5 minutes before the chequered flag. All went like clock-work, until a RM2 rubber bush gave way, which led lost 3rd gear and finally due to the excessive revs and heat, the gearbox bearings gave way.

It was very dissapointing for everyone, as we were lying 2nd in class, catching up to the class leader and the engine was reliable and built like solid granite. Brakes were fantastic, the Alcons able to outbrake any car, with sometimes we were braking at the 50m mark to outbrake other cars.