Working Hard....

It’s been a while since I updated my blog but here goes:

The last month since the 1^st round of the F-BMW championships has mainly been about catching up on schoolwork and fitness training. During the practice for Round 1&2 I got behind a bit at school so I’ve had to put a lot of effort into getting back to normal there. It should be OK now but I’ve got exams this week so we’ll see.

I’ve also been doing a lot of work at the gym to improve my fitness. That’s going well and I was very confident that I’d be able to handle the AFOS 4-race weekend without any fitness problems.

But, I got a fever a few days before the race weekend so it became a bit of a struggle. I felt quite weak on Saturday before I even got into the car and each session became harder and harder.

Qualifying went really well. We’d changed the engine in my car and it was much better. I set my fastest time ever at Sepang – 2:11.581 and qualified 5^th. I was best Malaysian and 2^nd of the championship entries – 3 of the drivers ahead of me were overseas guest drivers.

With that qualifying position I would normally have been very confident that I could attack in the races but decided to be careful and try to be consistent during the weekend.

Race 1 (round 3). Went well. I didn’t make a very good start but settle into a good pace not far behind the top 5. For the last couple of laps I got into a dice with Pasin which I ended up losing but 7^th overall was fine.

Race 2 I made a better start and again settled into a good pace. No big battles this time and I ended up 5^th (and 2^nd of the championship entries) so my best result so far.

For the Sunday races we started in the finishing order of the 2 races on Saturday. I was feeling a bit better than on Saturday so wanted to try and push during race 3. I made a good start and moved up to 5^th on lap 1 and then outbraked Dustin into turn 1 to take 4^th place. After a couple of laps my team mates Richard and Kotaro caught me. Richard passed me quickly but Kotaro and I had a bit of a battle for a couple of laps. Once Kotaro got past I was really just trying to hang on but in the last couple of laps Oscar and then Carlos both caught and past me. It could have been better but 8^th place still gave me good championship points, especially with 3 guest drivers ahead.

Race 4 was a real struggle. I was feeling very weak and just battled to make sure I scored some more championship points. I ended up finishing 11^th – 8^th without the guest drivers.

It was a really hard weekend which could have been a lot better if I hadn’t been ill. But, I was the only driver to score points in all 4 races and have moved up to 5^th in the championship – and only 1 good score away from 2^nd place. I’m easily the top Malaysian rookie driver in the championship standings now.

The championship is very competitive – if you ignore the guest drivers, 8 of us were on the podium in the 4 races over of weekend so every race is going to be fast and furious. But, I’m very confident now that I’ve got the pace and the race craft to race anyone, including the guest drivers so I’m really looking forward to the next rounds in August.

During the break I’ll be doing schoolwork, doing a couple of kart races and working on my fitness – what this weekend proved to me is that fitness is really important and I don’t ever want to feel as tired as I did this weekend...

A frustrating start

My F-BMW debut weekend didn’t go as well as I’d have liked and has left me frustrated that I couldn’t show properly what I can do in front of the big crowd at the GP and especially in front of the sponsors and people who are supporting me.

Qualifying

Was pretty OK. The car felt good with new tyres and I managed the fastest lap I’ve done at Sepang and ended up 7^th for race 1 with a 2:11.4 but I got into a bit of traffic after that and could only do 2:11.8 as my 2^nd best time so started 10^th for race 2.

Race 1

It was very weird before the 1^st race. I was excited, nervous, calm and focussed all at the same time – I guess all the rookies were the same. I didn’t make a very good start and lost a couple of places into the 1^st corner and then lost a couple more during the 1^st lap because I was very careful not to make any mistakes while the tyres were getting up to temperature. Once the race settled down I could go at the same pace as the group in front of me and we had quite a good battle all the way through the race. I had one big go at passing Dustin and Afiq at one point and did outbrake them but I slide a bit wide and they both got past again. For the last few laps I was very close to Afiq but he kept a very tight line and didn’t give me any openings to try to pass so I had to settle for 9^th place.

Race 2

From 10^th I made a good start and was 8^th going into turn 4 but then disaster. I’m not sure how it started but exiting turn 4 I ended up doing a 360 on the grass on the outside and although the next 5 cars managed to avoid hitting anything by going in different directions, Afiq was unsighted by the others and hit me just as my car was pointing back in the right direction. Unfortunately both our cars were damaged so one incident took out the 2 top Malaysian championship finishers from race 1. It was a normal racing accident but a big shame for both of us – and the other guys that lost places in the incident.

As I said at the start, it was very frustrating that I couldn’t put on a better show for everyone but it’s made me even more determined for the next set of races during the weekend of 14-16^th May.

The good news...

...was the performance of my team-mates, especially Richard Bradley who completely dominated the weekend with pole for both races and flag to flag wins, and fastest laps, in both races. Kotaro spun in race 1 while 3^rd but redeemed himself with a great drive and awesome last corner overtaking move to grab 3^rd in race 2. Duvashen got 11^th place and a couple of championship points so everyone in the team scored points and Eurasia lead the team championship by a good margin. We’ll all be working hard to extend that lead in the next round.

Full time racer - for a couple of weeks

For the next two weeks, I get a sample of life might be like as a professional racing driver. Because it's the 1st round of the Plus Yamaha SL Cup and the Offcial F-BMW test this weekend and then rounds 1&2 of the F-BMW Pacific series the next weekend, I'm rushing around like mad going to launches, tests, practice sessions and then races at the moment - there's something nearly every day.

Here's what's going on:

Yesterday (Weds 24th) we launched the SL Cup and also the Plus kart team. E-Rain have given a prize of a free days testing for the winner of the junior category in the SL Cup so I got a chance to hop into their car at the launch for a photo shoot.

Fri 26th - test my kart for the weekend's SL Cup race

Sat 27th Sepang GP track in morning for sign-on and a theory test as part of the F-BMW Official Test. After that, rush to Sepang kart track to set-up my kart for the SL Cup

Sun 28th. Back to Sepang GP track for the on-track test sessions in the F-BMW car. After lunch, to the kart track for the SL Cup races. I might need to start from the back of the grid because I might not get there on time for qualifying

Mon 29th. Catch up on school work

Tues 30th: more school catch-up

Weds 31st: F-BMW car launch at KBS with the sports minster then to Elite for a kart event with some VIPs and media people

Thurs 1st: Sign-in, photo shoot and briefing at Sepang GP for F-BMW

Fri 2nd: Free practice for F-BMW

Sat 3rd: Qualifying and race 1 for F-BMW (wish me luck!)

Sun 4th: Race 2 F-BMW, watch F1 GP

After that, I can go back to being a school pupil, at least for a while :-)

Rotax Max Challenge Rnd1 - A successful warm-up

Last weekend, 13/14 March was my first race of the year. Although my priority for the year is F-BMW, I'm going to carry on racing karts as much as possible - it's good fun and practice and also helps my general fitness and race craft.
For Rotax this year I'm racing in the senior class regularly for the 1st time, although I did do one race in Hong Kong in 2008 in seniors. Seniors is a tough competition - I'll be racing against Afiq Ikwan - who's driving for Meritus in F-BMW, Mikko Nassi - the defending champion and a whole lot of other top drivers from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
The week leading up to the race was pretty tiring because it was the three test days for F-BMW before the official on 28th March. The test days were great - I had good speed on all three days and on the last day got down to 2:11.7 - my fastest lap ever at Sepang. That made me the fastest of the EurAsia drivers and 3rd or 4th fastest overall so is a good sign for the upcoming races.
RMC is always a three day event so having finished the F-BMW tests on Thursday, I was straight back to Sepang for kart practice on Friday. It was nice to be back in a kart and straight away my kart and engine felt good. The track layout has changed - it runs anti-clockwise now and so I had to spend some time learning a new track and finding the best line through some of the corners. We tried a few setting changes on the kart and I got to good and consistent lap times.
Saturday is a practice session, then qualifying and heat 1. Qualifying was good, I managed to get pole position in front of Japanese driver Sena and Afiq so was very happy. Heat 1 was fairly simple - I made a good start and got a lead into the 1st corner. I was a bit faster than the others so managed to pull away a bit on each lap so by lap 5 I had a 10 meter lead and then just concentrated on driving smoothly until the finish.
Sunday is heat 2, then the pre-final and final. Heat 2 was almost the same as heat 1 and I lead all the way. The start of the pre-final was a bit more exciting. Afiq got ahead of me at the start but at the end of lap 2 I out-braked him going into the 2nd last corner. Everyone said it was a really good pass although to me it was fairly simple - my kart was handling really well and the brakes are good so once I got into the right position I was confident I could pass him. After that I pulled away a bit and then conserved the kart for the final. The final went well - 1st into the first corner and I actually had a quite a big lead after the 1st lap, the people behind me had swapped positions in turn 1 and a couple run off the track so they slowed each other down. From that point it was a case of keeping it tidy and doing smooth consistent laps. Mikko finished 2nd with Sena 3rd. Afiq had a puncture in the middle of the pre-final so did well to come up to 6th in the final.


My "new" kart team - GP Racing - had a good weekend. My senior team-mate Shafiq Ali got up to 5th place in the final after a difficult weekend which started with him getting a puncture in qualifying and starting from the back in both heats so 5th was a great result for him. Terence also came 2nd in Masters and another teams driver using a GP Racing kart won in DD2.
So, a really good start to the racing year. Hopefully my debut in F-BMW will go well as well!

Here I go - Formula BMW in 2010 :-)

On Friday (12th Feb) we finally signed a contract with EurAsia for me to race in F-BMW Pacific this year. It's been a long story to get this far and we still haven't got all the sponsorship we need but we've got enough to be able to sign the contract.

I've done 10 days of testing now and it's been fun, hard and tiring all at the same time. Driving a single seater is completely different to a kart - there's a lot more to think about (like gears!) but I think now I'm getting used to it and my times are improving fast. On the 1st day of proper testing my best time was 2 min 19 secs but now I'm consistently doing 2 min 13 secs so much faster - I've just got to get a couple of seconds faster to be right on the pace. The team seems to be very confident about my ability to find that time - and so am I :-)

Physically it's much harder as well. After each practice session my body - especially my arms and neck - aches like mad but I'm doing more gym work now and that's helping a lot.

During the next 6 months, I'll write about the testing, practice and races and so I better introduce some of the people I'll be talking about.

Mark Goddard is one of the team principles for EurAsia and manages the technical side of the team. He was a top class F3 driver and understands driving and racing really well. The most important thing he does is help the drivers look through the data from the car - in F-BMW we can see times, revs, acceleration, braking and turning data and looking at this (and comparing to other drivers) make it easy to see where I can improve and what mistakes I'm making.

Martin Quick is another team principle. He mainly handles the financial and logistic side of the team but he was also a really good driver so can help Mark on the technical side as well.

Greg Wheeler is the main engineer for the team. He was Alex Yoong's engineer in F1 and A1GP so is very experienced. He's been a really big help on understanding how the car works and how set-up changes make the car feel different.

Alex Yoong is my driver coach. His experience in single seaters is a great help to me.

My team-mates are:

Richard Bradley: Richard was British KF1 kart champion in 2008 and has a whole bunch of other successes. He's 18 and lives in Singapore now. F-BMW is his 1st single seater experience but he's already showing how fast he is.

Kotaro Sakurai. Kotaro is an ace Japanese karter. Only 15 so 6 months younger than me but he's done a bit more single seater driving than me and is seriously fast already.

Duvashen Padayachee is Australian. He's 19 and only started karting 2 years ago but has made up for lost time quickly and is going well in the F-BMW testing.

With 4 rookies in the team, Eurasia have had to do a lot of training and coaching but the team is looking strong. All my team-mates are good drivers and nice people so we're going to have a lot of fun and even more competition between us :-)

Finally, of course there's my management team - my Dad (and Mum and grandparents), Sayed and John have worked hard to make this happen and have supported me through all the practice sessions.

It's going to be a very busy year for me - 6 F-BMW events, kart races whenever I can, gym sessions and - most importantly (before my mum and everyone else shouts at me!) school exams as well. Hopefully I'll be able to do them all well and keep some kind of social life going as well :-)

HI

This is my 1st post. I'm sure I'll get better as I go along - this is a completely new world to me