Individually, each and everyone of us gets 24 hours every single day to be utilised (or wasted, depends on your personal preference) in life, but have we ever meticulously monitor each of the passing minute to see our life progress within that 24 hours? How would we last for the remaining hours or be prepared for any unexpected events that may need immediate attention or move on to just call it a day? Although we share the same time and space given, each and everyone of us decide on very different paths regardless, and it is just the way human nature is programmed.
Over the last weekend - for 46 teams and hundreds of their crews from Japan and Malaysia, that was exactly what they have been doing the recent weekend. K-Car Global is a 24-Hours Championship Series that mainly runs around Japan with one of its leg being held in Sepang International Circuit once in every two year for the past few of its iterations, this time having massive support from local K-Car manufacturer, Perodua Malaysia.
We have always wanted to document the event as to us, it is a very unique event with a lot of twist that we can never see in other racing series here locally. Lucky for us, we have a few racer friends that participated and one of our #NoEqualCrew was also racing in one of the Malaysian team. Having teams that we can follow the progress on, really let us dive into the smaller details that we ever so often overlooked when we collect generic coverages on racing events.
We followed the progress of car #56 of Kereta Kecik Racing Team (KKRT) with a turbocharged L5 JBDET Perodua Kancil, and #NoEqualCrew Amirul aka "Wok" in the hot seat as one of the 8 drivers for the 24 hour stint. The team started strong for the first 12-hours of the race, and gunning for a podium finish that was within reach should the position remain. But as this is a 24-hour race, the team and the drivers can't be complacent as they have only got the job half done.
As night time creeped into the wee hours, parts wear and tear started to become more apparent, and so does the driver's concentration and fatigues. Heavy downpour pushed through a damped track and turning parts of it into a water slide certainly did not make things easier for these teams and drivers. The 13th and 14th hours of the race became the turning point for the team as one of their drivers lost control of the car and flipped it at turn 11 causing the car to be towed back to the pit with broken rear right lower arm, bent A pillar, broken rear and front windshield, bent hood and messed up the intercooler mounting. Thankfully the driver walked away unhurt thanks to the mandatory roll cage application. One lengthy hour-long pit stop later, the team managed to get the car back out on the track despite looking the total opposite of what it looks like when it rolled off the grid more than half a day ago.
Upon resuming the race, they lost 3 positions back into 6th in class and were down by about 80 laps to the class leader with only few hours to go. They are going to need more than a miracle if they wanted to relive the dream of having podium finish. By then, the team had shifted the focus to just finishing the 24 hour stint, bringing the car back safely, breaking the 300-laps threshold and finishing top 5 would be a bonus for them. Amirul's strong last stint before passing the car to the finishing driver has helped the team to cut the difference by about 9 laps and simultaneously clocking the team's best time of 3.01.4xx, only half a second shy of the fastest time in class clocked by the winning car, 3.00.9xx.
Finishing the race in 5th position in M2 class and 40th overall and clocking a total of 312 laps in the span of 24 hours, the team considered the race as an achievement and proven themselves to be as competitive as the bigger teams in the class and series. Luck clearly wasn't on their side this time but that's racing, especially in endurance racing where each minutes passing counts to the bigger picture as a whole.
Due to overwhelming response and participation this year, there are rumors that the organizer is considering to hold this race annually instead of once in every two years as they are now. Now, should we assemble our own K-Car Global Racing Team for their next race?
#NoEqual #LayanEverything #RaceLikeNoOther
Over the last weekend - for 46 teams and hundreds of their crews from Japan and Malaysia, that was exactly what they have been doing the recent weekend. K-Car Global is a 24-Hours Championship Series that mainly runs around Japan with one of its leg being held in Sepang International Circuit once in every two year for the past few of its iterations, this time having massive support from local K-Car manufacturer, Perodua Malaysia.
We have always wanted to document the event as to us, it is a very unique event with a lot of twist that we can never see in other racing series here locally. Lucky for us, we have a few racer friends that participated and one of our #NoEqualCrew was also racing in one of the Malaysian team. Having teams that we can follow the progress on, really let us dive into the smaller details that we ever so often overlooked when we collect generic coverages on racing events.
We followed the progress of car #56 of Kereta Kecik Racing Team (KKRT) with a turbocharged L5 JBDET Perodua Kancil, and #NoEqualCrew Amirul aka "Wok" in the hot seat as one of the 8 drivers for the 24 hour stint. The team started strong for the first 12-hours of the race, and gunning for a podium finish that was within reach should the position remain. But as this is a 24-hour race, the team and the drivers can't be complacent as they have only got the job half done.
As night time creeped into the wee hours, parts wear and tear started to become more apparent, and so does the driver's concentration and fatigues. Heavy downpour pushed through a damped track and turning parts of it into a water slide certainly did not make things easier for these teams and drivers. The 13th and 14th hours of the race became the turning point for the team as one of their drivers lost control of the car and flipped it at turn 11 causing the car to be towed back to the pit with broken rear right lower arm, bent A pillar, broken rear and front windshield, bent hood and messed up the intercooler mounting. Thankfully the driver walked away unhurt thanks to the mandatory roll cage application. One lengthy hour-long pit stop later, the team managed to get the car back out on the track despite looking the total opposite of what it looks like when it rolled off the grid more than half a day ago.
Upon resuming the race, they lost 3 positions back into 6th in class and were down by about 80 laps to the class leader with only few hours to go. They are going to need more than a miracle if they wanted to relive the dream of having podium finish. By then, the team had shifted the focus to just finishing the 24 hour stint, bringing the car back safely, breaking the 300-laps threshold and finishing top 5 would be a bonus for them. Amirul's strong last stint before passing the car to the finishing driver has helped the team to cut the difference by about 9 laps and simultaneously clocking the team's best time of 3.01.4xx, only half a second shy of the fastest time in class clocked by the winning car, 3.00.9xx.
Finishing the race in 5th position in M2 class and 40th overall and clocking a total of 312 laps in the span of 24 hours, the team considered the race as an achievement and proven themselves to be as competitive as the bigger teams in the class and series. Luck clearly wasn't on their side this time but that's racing, especially in endurance racing where each minutes passing counts to the bigger picture as a whole.
Due to overwhelming response and participation this year, there are rumors that the organizer is considering to hold this race annually instead of once in every two years as they are now. Now, should we assemble our own K-Car Global Racing Team for their next race?
#NoEqual #LayanEverything #RaceLikeNoOther
