Everyday through my eyes....

Link to Asia one interview.

 

 

 

So funny video.. Must watch..

Japanese people sure are creative!!

skipped CF class on Friday to participate in the Caltex National GoKarting Challenge in East Coast Park. So excited for this day to arrive as our group (Jingpeng, Melvin, Zhong Han and Myself) have been going to Malaysia to practise. This is a time relay system type of competition, any team of 4 to complete 20 laps (5 laps per driver) within the shortest time wins!

 

Our qualifying lap was supposed to be scheduled at 1pm but guess what.. we only started at 3.30pm!! My god.. the wait was long and everyone was like so moody due to the bad weather. But i guess the wait was fruitful in a sense that we had time to go around the track and observe and strategise how much shld we brake and accelerate on each turns. We were assigned to PIT Lane 4 and I was the 1st driver followed by Melvin, Jingpeng and Zhonghan. As the first driver, I had the opportunity to go another lap as our warm up lap as well as to familiarise with the vehicle. The gokart on the first day wasnt the best in terms of its brakes, when i tapped the brakes and it wasnt as effective as i wish it had and i needed to brake early on every turn which would compromise our timings but the acceleration and handling was good. I pushed the vehicle really hard but due to the brakes, i had to be more cautious when tailgating other competitors, thus overtaking chances were slim but i still did overtake a team. Melvin overtook the most on that day, in fact there was a major pileup of vehicles due to collision and luckily Melvin wasnt one of those and he cooly drove pass the affected vehicles!! Well Done Melvin!! Overall the whole team did well, we came in first for our heats and 3rd overall fastest for Friday. Our timing during qualifying was 12mins 13.45seconds. Didnt have any photos that day as Demy (our team photographer) wasnt around.

 

Though we did well, we still had to get a confirmation if we were in the Finals on Sunday. At about 11pm plus on Saturday, Jingpeng called me to inform that our race was scheduled at 1045am on Sunday. Almost cant sleep on Saturday night, dreaming on winning the race, getting a trophy, perhaps some Caltex vouchers or perhaps a prize Gokart???

 

The wait on Sunday was so so much lesser, probably due to the presence of the VIP, MOS for Ministry of Trade and Industry. The track has been slightly modified, more chicanes were added to slow down gokarts before a turn where a majority of accidents have happened. However, it did not really bother us as we felt it would give us more speed after the hairpin corner. After the safety briefing, we were assigned to Pit Lane 3 (since we were 3rd fastest for our Category on Friday's Qualifyings). Sequence of drivers were still the same and on my warm up lap, the feel of the vehicle was great... car's acceleration was responsive, brakes were really good and handling was also top notch!! My personal target was to of course go through fastest and if possible to overtake the front 2 vehicles in front of me. First 2 laps, i have been stuck behind Gokart from Pit Lane 2, can only keep tailgating him and wait for my chance. So damn frustrating, as he wasnt going fast enough and was defending his space around him, i couldnt get around him. however on the hairpin, he took the wider corner which was the normal racing line and i cut into his inner lane after enjoying much slipstream from the back to take advantage of his wider turning angle! One down, one more kart from Pit Lane 1 to go!! By the way, the driver from Pit Lane 1 was a female driver, wonder how they got fastest in qualifying but she must have got some balls to get that fast. Anyway, after overtaking that Pit 2 kart, that girl was already 20 metres ahead of me with only 3 laps left. No choice but to step all the way and leave the braking to the last minute to catch up with her. One lap later, finally caught up with her and was following really closely as well but i knew i had to be careful as if she brakes hard and i hit her back, i may end up disqualified. Dunno if shes that type of kayu driver, i can only keep a bigger distance away from her. Upon making the hairpin turn, she finally noticed i was at her back and she started to stumble! She was more aggressive and started to approach corners at faster speeds to try shake me off but she suffered her own deserts when she miscontrolled her kart and left me with a chance to zoom past her!!! Hurray!! Last 2 laps for me before i enter into the pits and hand over the kart to Melvin. That was perhaps the clearest of tracks that i have driven, no cars in my sight and all behind me. but before i entered the pits, i was within 10 metres from the Pit lane 6 vehicle who started last which meant that i was a lap in front of him! As usual dived into the pits with my hand up indicating my intention and the attention quickly switched to Melvin when he took control of the kart. Melvin was able to do a couple of clear laps as the time he was out there, the other vehicles had to do their switch. He used his jerking method and indeed he was able to accelerate faster after taking the corners. Luckily Melvin didnt hurt himself after another team collided him on the rear. and luckily the kart didnt spinoff!! if not i may not know will happen to the final result??!!! Melvin came into the pits to do the switchover 1st. Jingpeng was up next. I think the pits was really full when Jingpeng was about to leave and precious seconds were wasted awaiting pit 1 and 2 karts to clear the pits. Zhonghan next and he was real fast over the hard left then right corner. On some times, he even had to manouvre through tyres that got stuck in the middle of the road as a result of poordriving from karts in front of him. Thankfully, not much time was wasted.. Zhonghan did well during his turn and was able to control the kart through some melee of karts!!! We were first to complete the race! Our timing was 10 mins 29.5seconds. About 1min and 34 seconds faster than our first try!! Excellent improvement and teamwork!!

 

Right after taking some victory photos, we were asked into the airconditioned Media Tent for interview. Channel 8 and U were there as well as Straits Times and CNA. Took alot of photos Thanks to Demy and got a Timex Watch as Prize together with a Gold Medal.

 

Thanks to Jingpeng, Melvin and Zhong Han for making Team APEX possible. We will be back next year to defend out Cat B title!!

First time visiting Chinese Garden after Bro Liao told that they are having fireworks and got a nice display of lanterns.

Took various photos with different lantern designs as well as a video for the fireworks..

Signed up for Caltex Go Kart Challenge a while back with a couple of frens (Jingpeng, Zhonghan and Melvin) and today was the practice lap. The objective was to get used to the gokart but the track wasnt what we gonna race in on the actual day. Weather was bad on the way there, was pouring v hard and by the time we reached the track, the first group of racers we already there "drying" the wet track for us.

 

To make matters worse, the go karts were not on wet weather tyres. Instead they were still on slicks which were meant for a dry track. That caused us to skid when making fast turns at corners as well as getting a whole lot of dirt + mud churned up onto ourselves. Thankfully Demy came along as well and managed to catch some nice photos.