Julian Wins CK 125 Open

Kookaburra Racing driver, Julian Ng, recently raced the City Karting 125 Open on 8th of August 2009 and won!



Below is a personal and detail encounter of Julian's race.

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The last round for the Shah Alam Friends and Families 125 Race was held last Saturday 8th August, which was also the day for Malaysia's premier endurance car racing event, the MME. As I was fighting for the 125 Stock class and this the final round for the year - my race participation was compulsory if I wanted any chance to collect more points and have shot at the year's championship.

For those who did not know, Shah Alam Friends and Partners 125 Race is a "by invitation only" race event, organised by City Karting and raced at their own track. The 5 round championship started 6 months back where the 1st race ( non championship round ) attracted about 24 drivers! There were effectively 3 categories - Open, Stock and Ladies. As the name goes, Open means any 125 kart engine is allowed and we have seen the Rotary, DD2, Parillas, SuperROK and modified Maxes and ROK in this category. The Standard is basically open for your ever popular Rotax Max engines and the ROK engine. The final category is for the lady karters, where they race with the boys in the 125 Stock classes is the Ladies Cup but have a prize at the end of the day. We have 2 lass competing at each round....

The race format is very much shorter than most real racing championships and this was beneficial as most drivers are amateurs/hobbist karters where race fitness are at times, right at the limit by the day's end. The added bonus from this shortened racing is we get to stretch 1 set of tyres through 2 rounds of this championship! Since Mojo D2 cost RM680 a set, such savings are indeed part of the reason why this championship see easily 15 drivers each round. We run weights @ 160kgs for Max, 155kg for ROK and more for open. The policing of weights is anyhow, lax...

Anyhow, due to the upcoming Puasa month - the organiser had decided to finalise the championship before that and hence the 8th August was chosen, the week before. As per the races, registration started at about 1130am, which again was convenient for those who need to tend to the family or even business earlier on in the day.

For the last round, I came late......but another driver, was even later and that was Muhaymin, the championship leader and all round, Mr Nice Guy....Anyhow, the normal pre-race preparation was normal, tyres change, tyre pressure checks, refuelling, data logger hook up......and a general overall check of the kart was done by myself. in my last race, I had an eventful Rd 4 after an accident with Ng Wai Leong which resulted in a very destroyed radiator, a slight bent rear axle and on the final lap, my exhaust fell off literally - which ended my race that day while chasing for 3^rd placing! :(

Mindful of the mechanical mayhem in the previous race, I had the foresight to test my kart 2 weekends before to ensure all repairs were ok. Despite that, my race day did not start well as my kart refused to start! A bit of panic set in and after a series of changes ie. batteries, capacitors - it was concluded that the starter was at fault. Well, my race almost ended there and then but a hammer and rod at the starter soon cleared the issue as she sprung into life......maybe my prayers helped too!

This race saw me donning for the very rare occasion, my blue KMX-3 Alpinestars suit which, come complete with amour and padding....all very nice but hot, which i normally dislike! Saturday was a scorcher too so plenty water were the order of the day!

Already reeling from these episode - I suited up for my 10min qualifying and customary to my choice, I will leave it to the last 5 minutes when the traffic would normally be better. It worked all past rounds and so I thought it would too for this time. In fact Wai Leong and myself were the last 2 go out for the qualifying and it was quite comical as I was tailing him at a slow speed and he was looking at me.....urging me to past! ( and I did not! ) This went on for 1 lap till I decided to pass him and go for it. Well, as they say - we can plan for the worst and hope for the best but in the midst of my qualifying run, Stanley - a fellow competitor, on his slowing lap decided to cut me off and there went my run. I tried 2 more runs and got down only to a slow 56.10, 3 tenths off what I could do. Well, that's what I thought!

When I returned to the pit and I was the last to do so......the qualifying results came up and I qualified a terrible 11th! My lap time was 56.3+ and no 56.10 despite that being recorded on my on-board data logger. To cut a long story short, the organiser stated that's my bad luck and likely due to the high transponder position I chose. ( which worked well in all past 6 races ) I changed that position, very quickly while cursing my bad luck. The consolation was Wai Leong only did a best of 55.9 and he was 9th! Muhaymin was also behind me.....in 13th! There rest were fast.....Naza was 55.5 and Eric and the Rotary, likely low 55s. ( maybe high 54s even )

The heats are 7 laps in length and Heat 1 was a mad dash to the front. I vaguely recall we had a very fast speed rolling start ( which suited me fine ) and I made up a few places after the Superrok driver ( Ramsey ) did not get a clean start and became a slow moving chicane. I think I finished 5th which was amazing when you think of the amount of passing I had to do! Of course, some retired or had crashes which were all part of the game.

One notable incident from Heat 1 was on exit from the 2nd hairpin - I passed Stanley and he was on my outside. As the exit was opening up toward the right, he stayed on my right and drove onto the grass and DID NOT BACK OFF! He was just beside me but I had 1/2 a kart length advantage. Knowing there was a kerb coming up.....I hope he backed off and as otherwise he could have turned into me or caused a pileup for those coming from behind. Muhaymin was on my tail.....luckily he half straddled the kerb and grass but backed off and from post race conversations....he lost 5 positions in that mistake! ( yeah, we were all tail to nose )

I also had the pleasure of passing the 2 geared DD2 but not before he sprayed me with his radiator run-offs.....for a few laps - a sign of overheating.

Heat 2 and Heat 3 saw me starting from 5th and 4th - positions which were determined by the finishing order from the last race. I did recall that Stanley ( yeah him again ! ) pushed me wide from behind at the parabolical once then in the next corner, dove on my inside and T-boned into Naza. I kept on the inside and sailed past these 2....in one of the heats. Hanif, a regular RMC racer came close by I just managed to hold him to the line.

The Final race is longer, 10 laps and this time, the starting grid is determined by the points we scored from the earlier 3 heats. I think I started 5th again.....on the inside which was ok. In front of me, was Wai Leong and on pole, the Rotary of SK Wong. Eric Yong was 2nd on his Parilla and I think Naza, my closest contender for 2nd position in the Stock 125 Championship was in 4th. Muhaymin was again, my wing man in 6th position.

The start was uneventful as I kept my 5th but soon the fixed DD2 was breathing down my neck.....the leaders ( Eric, SK, Wai Leong, Naza ) was ahead and knowing that the DD2 is much faster and in the open class as with those in front ( except the flying Naza ), I let him go. Muhaymin stayed behind me, knowing he already sealed the championship and did not want to spoil my race with Naza.....thanks!

Midway, the 5 bunched up which allowed me to come closer and Wai Leong pulled out soon after, perhaps due to mechanical issues. I was in 5th now.....with the DD2 dicing with Naza for 3rd! Then the DD2 came to almost a halt at the corner facing the paddock building and pulled off to the side, from a snapped throttle cable. His sudden slowdown scared me as I was coming at 106kph into the same corner, about 1 second behind him! Naza managed to get away and soon caught up with the Rotary in 2nd place. I was now 4th....at lap 6.

When I realised that SK was actually holding Naza up - I poured on the coals and tried to catch up.....and in fact did my fastest lap for the day then. A 55.53 which is about the fastest I been on the ROK/Mojo combination. ( yeah slow…) By lap 8, I was already tailing Naza and SK. Naza attempted a few passes but the rotary would blast pass him at every straight....an easy feat since he had 50hp at his disposal ( the Max has 28hp and ROK 26hp in comparison ). All this while I was plotting where and when to pass them and Naza was my priority, being in the same class as me.

On the final lap, the moment came.....and I dove on the inside of the hairpin. Naza, who either was too tired or annoyed at the rotary, did not put up a fight for the remaining 3 corners although I was expecting it.....and drove a defensive line into each corner. By then also, SK pulled a gap and did not play into our duel. Muhaymin, who was all the time tailing us - post race said that my passing was very clean and Naza just left the door open.

The finishing line was a welcome sight to me after an eventful day.....and I came 3rd overall ( Eric won the race, SK 2nd ) and crossed the line 1st in my class. I think ( subject to confirmation ) - I finished 2nd for the year as I was on the podium on 2 earlier occasion ( both 3rd ).

A note to mention for this round was that we had a few My-karter renting and joining the race this round as well ( Ramsey, Edwyn, Zul ) and this shows that the interest for such simpler/no fuss 125 racing is indeed becoming in demand.

Well, at the end of the day, the podium saw 3 quite senior guys triumph over those youngsters...... :) , The victory and this fact, made my day as I stood on the top podium with my 2 friends , beaming with a proud sense of achievement!

Karting – there is no other adrenaline fix……trust me!