Classic Car Club of Hong Kong (CCCHK) Race Series 2008 - Sepang Malaysia

Round 5 – MME support race Aug 28th- 30th (Full F1 Circuit) - Race Report

Prior to the weekend we had hoped to get as many as 26 cars on the grid, but unfortunately by the time registration was completed the numbers were down to 19.

A bright spot was the entries from ‘The Otomotif College’ which were two ‘new’ Class B cars which brought the numbers in that Class up to four- These were the Peugeot 505 and 305 which, having been generously donated to the college by Mr Izhar and Mr Philip Cheah, had been thoroughly overhauled and race prepared as a project by two teams of final year students. They were driven by Mr Saravanan (Peugeot 505) and the very well known and successful rally driver Mr Karamjit Singh (Peugeot 305).

For more details of the project see this link for The Otomotif College blogsite- http://www.toc-raceteam.blogspot.com/

Qualifying (Friday morning)

Free practice had already seen Simon in his TVR set the pace on Thursday, and so it continued with him grabbing pole position followed by Bertie in Class O. New Class C entrant Nigel Farmer in his highly modified and very fast Lotus Europa however upset the rest of the ‘usual suspects’ in Class O by going 3rd fastest in Free Practice and then 4th in qualifying – A  great result on his debut weekend at Sepang!

Ian Geekie was again lacking competition in Class B as Azman Ramly’s Escort once again had engine troubles and retired for the weekend after just 1 lap of qualifying. Both of the Peugeots also struggled with mechanical ‘gremlins’; only one managed any qualifying laps; hopefully the races would be kinder to ‘Team Otomotif College’?!

Koh Hark Kwa was fastest in Class A.

Race 1 (Friday afternoon) – Hot hot hot!

Race 1 was held in very hot conditions - as my sunburnt neck can confirm – once again unfortunately I was on the sidelines for a Classic race – this is getting frustrating!

Gerry’s Mustang appeared to also be feeling the heat as it struggled to get to the start. He didn’t make the grid but just made it to Pit lane for the start of the race. Azman Ramly and Izmi Merican unfortunately weren’t so lucky and didn’t start either race.

All got off to a good start with Bertie getting away first but the power of Simon’s TVR proved too much down toward Turn 1. Once again there was drama as Bertie bravely out-braked Simon around the outside! They swapped positions twice more but eventually the awesome power of the ‘Schirle V8’ prevailed as Simon pulled out a lead and appeared to cruise to victory. Bertie tried hard but just didn’t seem to have the straight-line speed, finishing 2nd
Daniel had a good start challenging both Paul Winkelmann and Nigel Farmer – He was re-passed by the Europa, but managed to hold off Paul to take 3rd spot in Class O and was followed by Paul and Mike.

Gerry had a dramatic race from his pit-lane start, playing ‘catch-up’ to the rest of the field – He got as high as 6th place when all of a sudden the Mustang decided to ‘pop the hood’ into the Turn 1 braking area – Very spectacular Gerry! We gave you 8.5 points for artistic impression, but definitely a 10 out of 10 for keeping it straight and clear of other cars – and the walls!!

Wilson’s Jaguar also sadly retired on lap 5.

Ian again ‘cruised’ to victory in Class B. The Otomotif College team had mixed fortunes as the Peugeot of Karamjit Singh took 2nd spot in Class B – well done! Unfortunately Saravanan’s 505 only managed 3 laps before mechanical (fuel?) problems ended his race early, despite heroic efforts in pit lane by his ‘pit crew’ to get the car going and restart the race.

In Class A it was Mini, Honda, Mini, as Hj Mohd Farid held off Koh Hark Kwa and Mohd Zaaim Bakar to take the win.

Nigel Farmer was not content to win Class C convincingly and started challenging Bertie for second place overall! Bertie prevailed but Nigel still took the class win from Nur Redzwan and Roy Morgan.

Race 2 (Saturday Morning)- (hot again!)

Race 2 was another ‘hot’ race in all senses of the word! Although the race was at 9am, the track temperature was already up as well as those in the cars!- Another good start saw Daniel pass Nigel into Turn 1 and Bertie pass Simon into Turn 4. Bertie only held the advantage until the next time around when Simon again passed him into Turn 1 and once again held on for the win with Bertie 2nd. Nigel again re-passed Daniel to hold on for 3rd overall. 

Paul spun out of contention at Turn 9 and was narrowly avoided by Mike and others who were close behind! (I’d like to see the in-car video of THAT one!) He then charged hard back up the field to again finish behind Daniel who in turn had been chasing Nigel hard until the tyres on the heavier Porsche went off......

And Gerry and the Mustang….? He again played ‘catch-up’ after starting from the back of the grid! (I am starting to suspect that this is being done deliberately in the very good cause of providing great ‘Video Night’ footage….?) This time he finished just behind Mike.

Ian again won Class B comfortably, once again finishing ahead of Karamjit Singh and this time in third place it was ‘Sara’ in the other Peugeot! - 2nd and 3rd in Class for ‘Team Otomotif College’ – Very well done at their first race meeting and we hope to welcome them all back for the next races!

Class A saw a repeat of Race 1 with Hj Mohd Farid finishing ahead of Koh Hark Kwa and Mohd Zaaim Bakar and scoring more points to close the gap at the top of the Class A points table.

Class C was also the same result with Nigel Farmer completing a very successful first weekend of Classic racing at Sepang with a ‘clean sweep’ and finishing ahead of Nur Redzwan and Roy Morgan.

So with the Overall Championship title as well as Classes A and O still ‘up for grabs’, it is now all down to the last race meeting in two months from now as we support the A1 race on November 21st -23rd.

See you all then!

Nick Thomas 

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