After a flurry of actions in the previous round it’s good to know that this season’s MSF’s (Malaysian Speed Festival) best is still yet to come, and indeed it came in round 3 which was the Enduro. The penultimate race of the 2016 MSF season probably was the most thrilling of the entire year. No doubt the organiser has been working tirelessly to ensure yet another unforgettable weekend of motorsport, plus, some good old-fashioned nostalgia. As for the races itself there were some few surprises, and in typical MSF fashion, will no doubt leave fans in awe.
Additions to the unrivalled roster of grids this year, the MSF Enduro sees new entries from legendary drivers in the form of former World Rally Champion Karamjit Singh, 70s and 80s championship winning drivers like YS Khong and Roland Ooi, including multiple MME winner Tommy Lee amongst other. Current racing stars going head-to-head with legends of the past would for sure provide one highly entertaining and spectacular round of the MSF Enduro. The younger generation of drivers are made out of drift and national champion Tengku Djan, Super Taikyu Champion Farique Hairuman, Alif Hamdan, multiple race champions and winners like Faidzil Alang, Boy Wong, Keifli Othman, Mark Darwin, Shafiq Ali and Lai Wee Sing.
Saga Cup & Super 1500 NA
Fans were treated to pure motorsport when the race began with the highly charged Saga Cup race. Running together with the Super 1500 NA Class it was one of the busiest grid in the MSF with 51 cars on the starting grid.
Mervin Gregory of Millennium Motorsports Asia competing in the Super 1500 NA Class had a great start from pole and he kept that position going into turn 1, closely followed by ST Wangan’s Keifli Othman who had managed to slip pass Tengku Djan (both running in the Saga Cup) off the starting line. With a host of cars bunching up going into turn 1, things got lairy with the first of incidents involving Farique Hairuman getting sandwiched between Prodrag’s Nazrul Hakimi’s Honda Jazz and Alif Hamdan’s JNA Racing-Penrite Proton Saga which catapult the former’s car into the air! Amazingly all three managed to continue racing aside from some bumps on their cars.
Meanwhile up front Mervin got into his rhythm and was controlling the race as most of his class competitors got delayed by turn 1 melee. But this was not the case between Keifli and Tengku Djan as the pair were trading fast laps before their pitstop. During the opening lap Tengku Djan had a misfortune, running with a shattered windscreen which left him trailing Keifli. He somehow managed to close this gap down to 200 hundredth of a second at one point before the pitstop and was looking to take the fight right down to the wire after the stop. But things didn’t go his way as the race marshals refused to let his team run again with the broken windscreen, thus ending a thrilling duel of the two title combatants.
This promoted Alif Hamdan and Farique to second and third place, with the latter playing catch-up in a battered car. Farique just needed to keep this position for his championship hopes alive but dithered during the pitstop after his teammate was penalised for infringement, dropping him out of contention.
At the finishing line Boy Wong brought the car home in first place after being handed over by teammate Keifli in the Saga Cup category.
Keifli commented, “My start was very good and it was the key factor. Once I was ahead of Tengku Djan, I got the maximum out of the car and tried to pull a gap as quickly as possible. When I received news that Tengku Djan’s car has dropped out, I knew that half the job is done for me after passing the car to Boy Wong. For me this was one of the best accomplishment in my racing career.”
Coming home second was the pair of Alif Hamdan/Lai Wee Sing and the benefactor of Farique’s misfortune, A.Kaathir Mohamed/Kasavamoorthy in third place.
Farique explained about the turn 1 incident and losing his third place position, “The start was pretty frantic especially when you have a large grid jostling for position. Going into turn 1 I saw a gap and was committed to it but as everyone can see the doors were closed very quickly and I had nowhere to go. But nevertheless it was a pure racing incident and I wouldn’t put blame on anyone. My car was pretty battered but drive able and I thought if I maintained the pace and kept the position that I had till the end, it would help in terms of my championship target. But a mistake during the pitstop sidelined my championship progress, just not my day, guess I’ll have to fight another day then”.
Mervin Gregory and teammate Asrul Azam kept their first place position right from the start till the end in the Super 1500 NA category and was never troubled by the oppositions throughout the race, which extends his championship standings. Coming home second was Prodrag Racing Team’s Nazrul Haimi/Mahyuddin followed by Keu Sian Shi/Ahmad Firdaus from team Momentum Auto Garage.
Race Cars
The Race Cars Category features Race Cars Open, Race Cars 1800 and Race Cars 1600 and is considered a major slot in the MSF schedule. In the Race Cars Open category, Keifli Othman (Fast Autoworks), Mark Darwin (Sitty Racing/DNT Tune) and Faidzil Alang (Fast Laps Autoworks) secured the first three prime starting slot. Joining them are equally fast drivers Pee Sau Peng (Fast Autoworks), Shazul Hisham (LMC Engineering) and Syahrizal Jamaludin (F Tuned Racing) all eager to spoil the party and take any chances to reduce the gap between them and the championship leader.
As the lights went off, pole sitter Keifli Othman had a fantastic getaway and opted for the inside line going into the first corner, followed closely alongside by Mark, Sau Peng, Shazul, Faidzil and Syahrizal. Faidzil who started third on the grid lost out at the start due to the larger capacity engines of his rivals namely Shazul and Sau Peng.
“I had to check whether I had the throttle pinned to floor during the start as the pair went pass by very quickly,” laughs Faidzil. Known for not giving up without a fight, Faidzil knew that his car had a better handling advantage and began clawing back his rightful position which he had lost almost immediately on the opening lap. He managed to dispatched Sau Peng going into turn 5 and was inching ever closer to Shazul. With a nice clean take going through turns 11, 12, 13 and 14, Faidzil was right in the slip stream of Shazul on the back straight, and passing the latter before coming to turn 15. So it’s game on for Faidzil and with a clear track to pursuit Keifli and Mark.
Meanwhile the action at the front was pretty close too with Keifli unable to shake off Mark. Keifli responded by clocking a fast time in the 2:24s to try and inch away but Mark responded in the 2:24s to stay close and if things stayed this way from here on, this was going to be one thrilling fight right to the end.
But on lap 4 something seems to be amiss as Mark began to lose some pace and Faidzil capitalised on this by taking second place and targeting Keifli. More drama would soon unfold on lap 7 when smoke began to billow from race leader Keifli’s car. As he slowed down towards the service road the engine compartment was on fire. Keifli got out of the car safely but his race was over after a good run and now the focus would be on Faidzil and everyone was certain that he would win that coveted main prize. Well, almost!
Due to the retirements of the two main protagonist, Keifli and eventually Mark too, the remaining top two steps of the podium was left for Shazul, Sau Peng and Syahrizal to fight it out, and just like that, Syahrizal was literally on the move! He quickly began to close the gap to Shazul who eventually retired after the pitstop and Sau Peng, with the latter suddenly being inconsistent with his pace. Just before the pitstop Syahrizal managed to grabbed second position from Sau Peng.
Just when everyone thought that the race was going to end with Faidzil’s team taking the victory followed by Syahrizal’s and Sau Peng’s team, the race is not really over till it’s finally over as the next turn of event takes over.
Faidzil had just pass over the car to his teammate Muhd Hisyamuddin and it was destine, barring any problems, the race would end in their favour. But luck was literally not on their side on this day! Just as Muhd Hisyamuddin was about to cross the start finish line on the final lap, his car suddenly lost all power and came to a halt, dashing all hopes of winning outright. “Aside from being disadvantage in terms of power, we had a good car today with good overall balance and we could fight for good positions once the race got underway. As for the car’s retirement, quite frankly it was a miscalculations on our part and for sure we got it all wrong, definitely this would be looked into and sorted for the final round,” said Faidzil.
So it’s advantage to team F Tuned Racing now with team boss Wan Ahmad Farouk behind the wheel leading the race and with a healthy 20 seconds lead over Sau Fan who had taken over from his brother.
Incredibly, signs of fatigue had taken it’s toll on some of the drivers and this was clearly displayed with Farouk who had done double stints in the MSF with him also competing in the Saga Cup just before the Race Cars Enduro began.
Coming on to the last lap, Fast Autoworks Sau Fan had closed in rapidly on the F Tuned Racing car after both their pitstops. Sau Fan made his move on the last lap, passing Farouk going into turn 1. Although slightly disappointed, Farouk held on to his second position till the end which rewarded him and the team, their best results to date in the MSF. It was also a great result if not their best for the brothers Sau Fan and Sau Peng as they took their first win in the MSF series and we hope to hear a lot more from them from here on.
“We had a modest strategy and it suddenly worked to our advantage when the leading cars retired. Right after this I began to up my pace and got the lead. It was close, really, really close and a victory would have been remarkable for the team who had work tirelessly to get this far. But it’s still a great result for the team and we are all fully motivated and for sure we’ll work on trying to do better than today in the coming round,” said Syahrizal from F Tuned Racing.
Running in tandem with the Race Cars Open, the Race Cars 1800 was dominated by Azlan Malik and Ahmad Firdaus driving their Honda Civic EK. The duo crossed the finishing line with a gap of 20 seconds ahead of second place duo of CY Khoo and Harve Singh followed by third place duo of Winston Tan and Philip Tang.
As for the Race Cars 1600, MSF welcomes MCS (Malaysian Championship Series) contenders from team Dream Chaser, with drivers CY Ong and teammate Geraldine Read making their debut. Being regular MCS contenders, they came well prepared and were ready to battle with the MSF regulars.
As the race got underway CY Ong was in control of his first place position and progressively distancing himself away from his pursuers in his category. By the time he passed the car to Geraldine they had a comfortable margin over second place man Chang Hai Kiat. Geraldine did not skip a beat and was almost mirroring what CY Ong did in his stint and she successfully brought the car home in first position. This was a great result for the team, and especially for Geraldine who’s been targeting for this accomplishment in her racing career.
Crossing the line in second place are the pairing of Chang Hai Kiat and Chan Beng Leong from team BMS Racing Lab followed by Helmee Jaafar and Zaidi Baharin from DNT BEARS Motorsport.
Super Street
Even though he has participated in only a handful of circuit events, he is still regarded as a legend of motorsport and MSF Series is honoured to have him in the series. He is Karamjit Singh, the first Asian driver to win the 2002 (FIA) Production Car World Championship for Drivers. With a race CV that perhaps can’t be matched, Karamjit has done it all in saloon car racing.
His first foray in the series sees Karamjit behind the wheel of Millenium Motorsports Asia’s Mitsubishi EVO 3 competing in the Super Street category, partnering Asrul Azam for the Enduro. The regular competitors in the MSF had welcome him with open arms, but we’re sure they had no plans of making his entry in the series that easy.
Main contender Johanz Jassa in his powerful Proton Wira Turbo was one of them along with the company of Hasrul Hisham with his Honda EG K20 and Raja Imran Shah driving his Proton Satria EVO.
As the race began, this fast pace race of virtually street cars displayed several factors with Karamjit’s competitors falling off and with some succumed to early retirements, which benefited him. But make no doubt about it, Karamjit hasn’t lost any of his driving pace and with some slick driving, took victory in his class on his debut.
Coming home behind him are the driving duo of Adian Yein and Alif Hamdan with their Mercedes A250, displaying that consistency does pay off even with a less powerful car. Behind them were Hasrul Hisham and Azahari Jaafar in third.
The Street Tuned Ltd was once again dominated by team JDM Racing, controlling the class with their very quick Honda Civic EF B16A machine. By the time they cross the line, their drivers, Gan Kim Koa and Philip Tang had a healthy margin of more than 47 seconds ahead of second place duo Hapizu Husin and Roakhir Abd. Malik from team Infinity Speed Works and third place duo Muhd Shafiq Rosli and Aril Hamka.
Meanwhile the Street 1600 LTD category was dominated by Toyota powered cars, taking the first top three steps of the podium. M.Hazlami Hazim and Muslim Mustafa representing team WAKOS GARAGE took the top spot with their Toyota SEG 4AGE. The duo completed their race with a 1 lap advantage over second place duo from JMS Tuner, M.Akmal Akid and Sutan Mustaffa driving a Toyota SEG 101 4AGE 20v and third place duo Afiq Mohd and Afandi Mohd in their Toyota Starlet EP70 of team Waksam Garage.
Hafez Kamarudin and Gan Ken Huat took the top of the podium steps in the Special Kei category after most of his main rivals suffered some setbacks. It was a lonely race for them and they too completed the race with a 1 lap advantage ahead of second place man, Mohd Johari followed by the partnership of Kamal Shukri and Zahid Latif in third.
Completing the Street Category is the Proton 1800 with some intense racing during the first few laps before the pit window opened. Eventually, Millennium Motorsports Asia’s duo Aw Kwai Foong and Took Sheng Ping secured first place ahead of the quick duo of Sutan Mustaffa and Shazull Hisham from team LMC Engineering and M. Illyas Isa and Chong Kiat Wai from team Seladang Merah Auto.
The season finale of the 2016 MSF will take place at the Sepang International Circuit on 27th November. After the MSF Enduro, the drivers championship standings is still wide open as the main title contenders had their misfortunes in various classes. While it benefited some drivers, their main title contenders are already focussing for the final showdown with all titles now to be decided only in the season finale.