Miri Gymkhana and Drift Challenge R2 – 1 to 2 July 2018
Super loooong post coming, there’s a lot to tell from this event, now where do I start? Hmmmm….
Alan and his LDMC gang, as well as the likes of Michael Wee and Johnny, had been the main driving force behind the Gymkhana and Drift scene for Miri, ever since Round 1, all of them had been very hard at work in getting Round 2 to be ready, and boy when I say they had to went through a whole lot of SHIT, I mean it… let me just break it down for y’all…
- R2 was initially planned at Lutong Old Airport Runway, unfortunately the venue was already owned by Shin Yang and they’ve decided to send in Excavators to level the place up for new constructions project, there goes the perfect venue for a Gymkhana/Drift event;
- With Lutong airport out of the option, they laid their eyes on Boulevard Shopping Mall 2nd car park, where most of the fairs and outdoor conventions are held, the area is wide and spacious, but surface ain’t that smooth and there’s quite a lot of debris that needed cleaning up, but here comes the problem, the place also owned by Shin Yang and the Boulevard management actually demanded a RM10,000 deposit for the rental use of the car park for the event, any damages cost incurred shall be deducted from that deposit, having been told just a month or so before, Johnny and his gang had to scrambled to look for help, luckily a good pal of his, Davis Loh, came for the rescue at the last minute, offered willingly to sponsor the RM10,000 deposit, and so the event is still a go…
I packed everything in my trusty Charmant, now Turbocharged, and drove from Sibu to Bintulu a day earlier before the event, so that I can stay in Bintulu for 1 night, and then convoy together with my Bintulu Sidewayz Squad teammates to Miri next early morning. Upon my arrival to Bintulu, we had great dinner together and also a very cool and chill Sidewayz Squad gathering at the Tanjung Batu beach car park.
On 1st July, all of us started our convoy ride from Bintulu to Miri, all of us arrived safely at Miri Boulevard car park around 9am’ish, the first day was all about Gymkhana, again with 3 categories: FWD, RWD and Open, managed by Jagjeet from KL, a very cool guy who eventually contributed to the progressive growth of Miri motorsport scene later, that will be told in a separate post later.
R2 participants is a HUGE improvement from R1, not only were there participants from all over Sarawak, Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu, Mukah, Miri and Brunei, but there’s also 2 travelling all the way from KK, none other than the KK drift scene guru, Uncle Desmond and his apprentice, TK Wong.
For the Gymkhana challenge, layout wasn’t that complicated, but there were a lot more cool obstacles utilized for the challenge, items such as water barriers, empty PVC drums and etc, definitely a nice change from the usual traffic cones that we’re all very used to.
Before the Gymkhana race starts, Hee Wei Seng challenged me to a race, if he beat me in Gymkhana, then I’ll have to hold up a sign admitting the lost in the middle of the track while he donut drifts around me, I was hesitant at first but I gladly accepted, it’s all for the fun of it and doesn’t hurt if it helps boost his Youtube content views.
At the time, I was still rocking normal Apollo brand new sponsored tyres as well as some used condition ones, on a pretty sandy surface at the venue, plus my newly turbocharged 4AGE, I was having a hard time finding grip, in short, I lost to HWS in his NA Charmant aka ‘Red Pig’ by miliseconds, damn, LOL!
My Gymkhana results were: RWD category 3rd place, Open category – Not in top 3. Overall not a very satisfactory result, but it was still good fun.
After the 1st day was over, LDMC organized a simple welcoming dinner for all participants at the local seafood restaurant, where some of us were also called upon to say a few words and etc. After the dinner was over, I am so so ready for tomorrow, which is the DRIFT CHALLENGE yo!
Then came the 2nd day, 2 July, today it was all about Drift Challenge, Ee Yoong Cherng was again invited by LDMC to be the technical advisor and judge for the event, Yoong decided to bring in ‘Drift Gonzo’ to the event, the first time ever, a pin-ball style obstacle based points drifting competition, if you’ve seen the likes of the Red Bull Car Park Drift, or Mad Mike’s Drift Shifters, then you’ll know what I meant, it’s exactly like that, albeit on a much simpler and easier scale of course.
With the new ‘Drift Gonzo’ layout style and obstacles, many of the drifters were struggling to complete the course, we also seen couple of serious crashes, but no injuries luckily, such a relief! After a half day practise, I finally started to get the hang of it, along with a few of my Squad buddies, and also the experienced gurus from KK. Qualifying, I managed to get 2nd place, just a fraction behind uncle Desmond in his 7AGTE red AE86 coupe, man that Corolla is fast as fxxk! Eight of us got into the top 8 tandem shootout battle!
My 1st battle, I went up against my good’ol teammate from Bintulu, Ngo LH in a RB25DET A31, I got the win and moved on to face another teammate, Roy Chai in his Skyline R32, again I won and then I’m officially at the finals, facing KK uncle Desmond!
I chase at the first run, I was having a hard time catching up with the quick AE86, but I was hitting all the right marks and finished with clean run, then on my lead run, I almost spun out at the donut box, but that didn’t phased uncle Desmond at one bit, surprisingly and also due to a bit of luck, uncle Desmond misjudged the final obstacle and had to stopped abruptly to avoid crash while I finish the run, knowing that I’ve won, mixed emotions started to flow through my head and I was STOKED!
Never thought that I could win, needless to say, it was ONE of the BEST moment of my entire drifting life, and I’m enjoying every bit of it, the friends, the cars, the atmosphere, the crowd, the drift, the actions, everything was just pitch perfect for me, TOTALLY LOVING IT!
Told you it’s a super long post, check out more photos!
Some videos from Youtube:
Here’s 2 clips of my final battle with the Legendary uncle Desmond:
Lastly, check out this blog coverage by Michael’s wife, Elena:
Sibu Dorifuto! 
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