Kiki Sak Nana, Daigo Saito, Manabu Orido and Robbie Nishida

Defending champion Daigo Saito of Sparks Achilles Drift Team clinched the Achilles Formula Drift 2011 Malaysia and the overall Drivers’ Champion titles at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur earlier today. Saito drove consistently and flawlessly throughout the competition, humbling the rest of the world-class field. The much-anticipated Final 2 battle against compatriot Manabu Orido, a familiar figure here in Malaysia from his exploits at the Super GT, proved interesting but ultimately one-sided. Drift legend Orido made a rare error as he spun out going into the first clipping point, giving Saito an advantage going into the second run. Saito did not disappoint, although Orido did not make it easy the second time round. Driving aggressively yet with pinpoint accuracy, Saito showed why he also convincingly swept through the Singapore and Indonesian legs earlier this year.

Achilles Formula Drift Malaysia Final: Daigo Saito vs Manabu Orido

Kiki Sak Nana clinched the final podium place with some impressive displays throughout the day. Malaysia’s best finisher was Mervyn Nakamura, who made it into the Top 16.

Saranon Pornpatanarak vs Mervyn Nakamura

The Achilles Formula Drift Malaysia 2011 was organized by ESPN STAR Sports and title sponsored by Achilles Radial. The event had full support of Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur and the following proud Sponsors & Partners – Mansion 88 (Official Sponsor), Tune Talk (Official Telco), Chevrolet (Official Car), Hypertune & SHIFT (Official Partners), Tyrepac (Official Online Portal), DRIVE (Official Energy Drink), Tayaria (Official Tyre Changer), Spritzer (Official Water) and Doubletree Hilton (Official Hotel). ESPN STAR Sports is the official broadcaster for the Achilles Formula Drift Malaysia 2011, and provided coverage across its networks, covering 24 countries to a cumulative reach of more than 300 million viewers in Asia.

This is in line with MAM’s currently running programmes, which encourages motorsport participation from a young age via a series of entry-level events. Female drivers are also encouraged to try their hand at competitive driving as a special category has been created just for them. To further highlight the involvement of women in Malaysian motorsport, the task of managing the event has been entrusted to popular Malaysian female rally driver, Gina Finanza.

Pennzoil’s debut as a motorsport event sponsor in Malaysia compliments its already established rally team sponsorship programme, which has a 2 car team in the Malaysian Rally Championship series, and successfully, they already have the Driver’s title and the Team Award Championship for 2008 in the bag. UMW PENNZOIL’S Director Encik Ibrahim Abu Bakar, said that he is happy about being the main sponsor of the very first autosprint in the country. “As we said earlier in the year, we would like to play a pivotal role in motorsports development in Malaysia. I am confident that Pennzoil has the ability and capability in this matter. Moreover, our achievements in the rally scene should speak for itself.”

Mia Sharizman Ismail, Chief Executive of MAM said, “We are very grateful to Pennzoil for recognizing the importance of supporting entry development motorsport programmes, as this is in sync with MAM’s primary objective in encouraging participative responses from corporate companies to be involved in the local sport area at the junior level. MAM is pleased to collaborate and work with Pennzoil and I look forward to a cordial working partnership for future programmes where both parties will benefit from each other’.

This event is organised by Wheelspin Event Management and promoted by GSR Motorsports. Event Director & former Malaysian Rally Champion, Mr. Gunaseelan Rajoo, commented that the PMAC is just a warm-up to more weekend based, budget friendly, motorsport events planned for 2009. The course is designed to accommodate two competing vehicles running simultaneously and should make exciting viewing for its spectators. Activities for the day start from 9am and ends at 6pm. The presence of Rally, Race, Drift, Classic car, Karting & Pocketbike enthusiasts mean that visitors to the event will be able to mingle with a wide range of Malaysian motorsport personalities who have been brought together by the PMAC. Also planned for event day are Media Challenge runs and promotional/sales booths by the UMW group and other invited guests. Make this an event not to be missed!

Additional information about the event can be obtained via http://wheelspin.events.googlepages.com/pennzoil-mamautosprintchallenge2008 or contact Mr. Jagjeet Singh, Managing Director of Wheelspin Event Management at 012-212 3260.

Final top 10 position:

1) Team Porsche Club Singapore -308 laps

2) Kencana – Hong Leong – 305 laps

3) Danville Motorsports (Class O) – 292 laps

4) Petronas Syntium Team – 288 laps

5) VRD Motorsport – 287 laps

6) ARC Bratislava – 286 laps

7) Mal Rose / Peter Leemhuis – 283 laps
Pineapple Motorsport – 280 laps

9) J’S Racing Labs – 279 laps

10) Danville Motorsports (Class A) - 279 laps

Congratulations especially to Team Proton R3 who won Class B with the Satria Neo. Awesome guys, well done! The R3gister is proud of Tengku Djan and the Proton R3 team!

Monday, 14 July, 2008

1800 – 2200

Monday, 21 July, 2008
1800 – 2200

Tuesday, 29 July, 2008
1800 – 2200

Saturday, 09 August, 2008
1800 – 2200

Sunday, 10 August, 2008
1300 – 1600
1600 – 1900

Thursday, 14 August, 2008
1800 – 2200

Tuesday, 19 August, 2008
1800 – 2200

Wednesday, 20 August, 2008
0900 – 1200
1400 – 1700
1800 – 2200

Friday, 22 August, 2008
1800 – 2200

Saturday, 23 August, 2008
1800 – 2200

Sunday, 24 August, 2008
1300 – 1600
1600 – 1900

Monday, 25 August, 2008
0900 – 1200
1400 – 1700

Tuesday, 26 August, 2008
1800 – 2200

LEV#007 Satria R3 for sale
December 2004
85,000kms mileage
Shell Helix Ultra 10W-50 Full-syn
Road tax till Feb 2009
Stage 1 spec – 145bhp

New timing belt, bearings
New engine mountings
New R3 suspension set
New paint + R3 livery
R3 license plate

Mods
R3 Stage 2 performance cams
R3 Gear knob
R3 Steering spacer
R3 Stage 3 4-1 performance header
Pipercross performance drop-in filter + cold air intake
R3 Stage 2 suspension bushes
Powerzone LSD kit

Protected by tracking + recovery system – Captor (worth RM1,950) and Radiostar (worth RM700)

RM58K only. Private sale. View to appreciate.

Drop me a line at vernon.chan[a]gmail.com for serious enquiries.

<!–adsense#inline–>Lew beat the Thai favourite, Jack Lemvard, who suffered from a tyre valve tear after a scuffle at the start of the race. Lemvard had to pit to change his right rear tyre and rejoined the race at the tail end and slowly climbed back up the ranks to finish seventh.

For more AFOS results, visit AFOS.com

View full report and results here

Asia’s major racing series – the Asian Touring Car Series (ATCS) has been incorporated as a support race for the Malaysian Super Series in June and will not feature at the 2008 Super GT International Series Malaysia, which will be held at Sepang Circuit from June 20 to 22.

The ATCS, which would feature top Malaysian drivers like Eddie Lew, Eric Yeo, Tunku Hammam, Harry Chai and Sharjihan Ghouse, would run two races – rounds 4 and 5 – at the third round of the Malaysian Super Series scheduled from June 13 to 15.

More from Malaysia Super Series site

This is certainly a long time coming. The review I mean. Not the car. Ok, well technically, to be accurate, the review of the car. And to be honest, this is probably the hardest review to date. Why? Because the Satria Neo R3 has a lot to live up to as the latest limited edition vehicle from R3, and also because I need to be impartial and brutally honest, being an owner of the Satria R3 – the car that is being ultimately ‘replaced’ by a newer, better-looking platform.

It has not been the smoothest of journeys for the 25-man strong Proton Motorsports Division, what the general public fondly knows as R3 (Race Rally Research). Battling red tape and budget constraints since its inception, attributed much to its umbilical cord attached to the Proton mothership, R3 has been rather silent from the scene much through 2006. The successful R3 Time Attack Series (formerly known as Street ShootOut – SSO), which saw the birth of the ‘Short Course Special’ SSO cars – SSO Satria and Putra, sputtered a horrible death, much to the disappointment of the grassroots motorsports fraternity. The very series that not only helped build R3 brand visibility and presence, and inspire the spawning of the first ever retail limited edition R3 vehicle – the track-special Satria R3. Dead.

Except for its dabbling in the local drift scene with the SSO Drift and D1GP Drift Series, Malaysian Super Series, and its big budget foray into the Merdeka Millenium Race (and winning), R3 did little where producing cars were concerned. The Savvy R3 and Gen.2 R3 were great teasers of what was to come, credit to the R3 development team, however reduced to being just elusive, unattainable prototypes. Like Milla Jonovich. Someone you’d so lustfully want to drive home and ‘ride’ but ultimately, can never have. Ok, bad analogy.

On a serious note, things did not look too rosy for R3. The world waited. And waited. No Gen.2 R3. No Savvy R3. No tangible, physical R3 vehicles from the R3 factory. Zilch. Nada. The only saviour was the virtual existence of the now defunct R3 website and forum, and also the R3gister blog (note: plug!).

Mid 2006, Proton introduced the Satria Neo. And desire, it seemed, had a new name. The Satria Neo launch not only gave the public the first taste of the new hatch platform from Proton, but also a preview of the R3 concept, much to the delight of R3 fans and car owners. The menacing Satria Neo R3 Concept showed R3 still knew how to make desirable, performance cars. It showed it still had drive. And passion.

Well and good. Then there was more waiting. Much of it. Still no Neo R3. R3 raced the Neo. In MME 2007, and MSS. A private company gave a preview of the Neo Cup race car. Proton gave us cute little canary-yellow A1GP special editions. Lovely.

Can the real Satria Neo R3 please stand up, then?

Well, wait no further my petrol fumes-sniffing friends. Welcome the Satria Neo R3. Seriously. It’s here. In its 135bhp Campro-powered, hand-built glory. All ten have been booked, sold and delivered to owners. Unfortunately no Incognito Black paintjob to keep R3 fanboys happy but black enough to matter. No official word on how many will actually be built, but word has it that R3 plans to make a total of 50.

At first glance, the Neo R3 (NR3) looks menacing. If you ever wanted an example of looking fast while standing still, this is it. Or Carl Lewis. Whichever turns you on. However you look at it, from any angle, mind you, this curvy hot hatch is indeed, ‘hot’. As far as cosmetics go, this baby has got everything going for it. The front valance fierce and racy. The rear beautiful, and purposeful, especially the downforce-inducing diffuser. Shame it does not come with any carbon fibre bits ala its older sibling. (CF spoiler thieves may be cursing at this point). Observed from side-to-side, the NR3′s modern lines and styling completely sends the SR3 to stone-age obsoletism. Typical of all R3 cars, the unmistakable red-silver side strips are complemented by conspicuous “Race•Rally•Research” decals and R3 badging, completing the trademark R3 look.

The 17″ Enkei wrapped in Bridgestone Potenza RE001 205/40R rubber (not Advanti RSW-03 as initially specced) fill the arches rather nicely. Ride height is slightly lower, attributed to a set of R3 performance springs coupled with stock Neo dampers, tested and developed by none other than R3 chassis engineer and race driver – the great Faidzil Alang. We’ll see how this translates to actual ride and handling later.

In general, there’s little to dislike about the NR3 exterior styling-wise. Personally I am not too keen on the Enkei option, preferring the subtlety of the Advanti RSW-01. Individual preferences aside, what’s important is that the NR3 exudes that understated “R3-ness” and it does this with conviction and confidence.

To be continued…

Sizes available: M and L
Material: 100% Cotton
Colour: Black

Price: RM25 only

Where to buy
R3gister tees are available at RACE Performance Center (RPC)
The new RPC workshop is located at No 3, Jalan Warden U1/76, Taman Perindustrian Batu Tiga, 40150 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan. Call Zainal (012-3987098) or Danial (012-2167408) of RACE for details and info.

Wear it with pride!