Merdeka 12 Hour Race 24th & 25th August Sepang F1 Circuit Malaysia

I drove for Team Porsche Club Singapore Racing. Ringo my dearest friend got me the chance to drive for this team and owner driver Weng gave the opportunity for me to drive for them along with Ringo and him. This was the best ever race I drove and the whole Team was fantastic there are no words to explain. Every one including the team members, mechanics, engineers and supporters they were great bunch of people and it was so nice to be a part of it. I was so lucky to drive this beautiful brand new 997 RSR it was a great car. I arrived in Malaysia on the 18th and we started testing from the 19th. The first few days we couldn’t do much with the suspension setting as Andréa our Engineer arrived only on the 22nd. Till then we drove the car and got to learn about it. Once Andrea arrived and did the set up we were able to set up very good times. Ringo and Weng were great they also did super times. Weng is very new to racing but I was surprised with his performance. Ringo raced with me in the PCCA in 2004 and he was out of racing for a while but was doing superb.

Arj our team manager was great he was pushing all of us to do the best but more than any thing the atmosphere in the team was great I have never had driven for a such a great team. I must take my hats off being their first race as a team they were very professional. I have driven for many professional teams in different categories but I must say they were the best.

Any way we were able to put the car on Pole. I did the fastest time 2.07.4 which was a event record and Ringo and Weng was very close and we got pole because they both did super times. This event the grid is given after calculating all 3 drivers times so all 3 of us were so happy to put the car on pole thanks to Michelin they gave us so much support and good tires. There were 3 more RSR 1 997 from Australia and 2 from Europe. Then Hans Stuck ex Formula 1 driver driving the works BMW Z4 and there were many good cars including the Lotus and few other V8 from Australia and few 996 cup cars. So as this was our first race as a team it was great to be on pole. There were so many great drivers from all over the world and we were so happy to beat all of them

I started the race and it was raining until the race started and dried just before the race. So we were deciding whether to run on wets or slicks but we started with medium slicks. I was able to run first till the 4th corner but Craig over took me on the 5th corner as this was a 12 hour race I dint want to take any risk I was running 2nd for few laps and we started lapping the slower cars and Swen over took me while I got blocked but after few laps I was able to over take him and till I went to the pits I was running 2nd. We were running very well for 4 hours when we had the first problem the 3rd gear wheel broke while Weng was driving but we were so lucky he was able to drive the car back to the pits. When we removed the gear box the 3rd gear was broken and the 4th gear folk was also broken and we didn’t have spares. Any way the mechanics and the engineers were able to fix it run only with the 5th and the 6th gear it took almost 4 hours but they made it. So the last 4 hours we had to run only with 2 gears Weng and Ringo did a great job and we were able to Finish 38th overall and 4th in the class. Every one was so happy that we could finish the race. There were so many from Singapore to support and they were great I really like every one who was in this project and it was great fun. Andrea our engineer from Italy was a very nice person and he knew his stuff all the mechanics was from PCCA Phillipino boys great guys and specially Andy and Thomas from Singapore who was looking after the car was so friendly and hard working. There was not a single thing to complain they were a very professional team. It was so nice to drive with Ringo again and Weng was so supportive and real gentlemen. I wish and hope I could drive with them for few more endurance races. Arj was the main person always looking after us and pushing us what a great guy.

Every one was very sad about the problem but we will have another race very soon. The next day we all had a great time in KL unforgettable and didn’t have much sleep and I had to take an early flight back to Japan. I wish I could race with these guys every day and I think to myself I am so lucky and blessed to meet this nice Singaporeans. Also my special thanks to Jonathan, Mao, Greg, James Rob, Harun and all the other guys who were there to support us through out the week end. Our next race together will be the Dubai 24 hours in January next year and I am sure we will have better results.