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| Jalan Bukit Bintang on a Friday is NEVER like this.. |
For city dwellers whose vocations and livelihoods depend on gainful employment in the city, those are the most blissful days of driving in the city one a will ever get to enjoy. And if you own a manual transmission vehicle, regardless of what your vehicle's engine displacement is, those are the days you actually discover more than the first and second gears - the ones you know so very well - and go from second to third gear, to fourth and even (wow!!), fifth - where the speed limits might allow it, of course. No reason to go off breaking all the rules now, even if that empty straight in front of you is as tempting as a glass of water is to someone who has just crossed the Sahara in mid-summer. Those cameras are still there and still working, believe me..
So, on the weekend of August 7th to 9th, KL-ites.. well.. me.. had the unexpected pleasure of driving into the city with virtually no traffic. I could have skated into town if I wanted to, though the last time I did that I ended up with two titanium pins holding my humerus bone together.. Anyway, it was to say the least, unusually - though deceptively - calm in the city that weekend, as KL-ites gave up their cars for a weekend in favour of public transportation to descend into the city centre (bar me, of course). For those who didn't, they stayed home or went about the usual business of clogging another part of the Klang Valley. To bad, you guys missed the party!!
Why, you may ask?
Well, for the first time in recent memory (despite almost a couple of decades in the motorsports industry, my memory is not that long), the streets of Kuala Lumpur were for the very first time, closed off for the inaugural KL City Grand Prix weekend.
A street circuit, like the one in Singapore?
That was what one lady said to me as I was wandering about the city centre one afternoon during the construction of the KL City Grand Prix circuit. I said, "sort of, Kak. Though this is different." She shrugged nonchalantly and went on her angry way.
Now the idea of a street circuit in the heart of the capital city is not exactly unheard off, actually. The country's national oil company had on several occasions over the years shut off Jalan Ampang, Jalan P Ramlee and Jalan Binjai before, for their infamous street demos ahead of the Malaysian Formula 1 weekend. BUT, the difference is that, on those occasions the streets were only shut for no more than a day.
The idea of a street circuit in the country is also not exactly unheard off either. After all there was the Formula e in Putrajaya, but then some argued it was held along the boulevards of the nation's administrative capital, flanked by office buildings where dwellers do disappear on the weekends making it feel like a ghost town anyway. And the roads were only technically closed off to vehicular traffic for no more than 36 hours, thereabouts.
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Then there was the Penang Island Grand Prix, which was held in the 1970s / 80s, some as part of the Formula Pacific races, which were a series of races that incidentally also included the most infamous street grand prix of them all - the Macau Grand Prix (so, "no, Kak, not Singapore"). Of those from that era, the Macau GP is the only one that continues to run until today.
Now, speaking from some experience, the thought of closing down the major arteries of the city is a mammoth undertaking, one that comes with mountains of consideration, multiple landslides of bureaucratic red-tape, and finite planning that can make even the most evil man on earth sob like a child.
And as expected, there were plenty of unhappy campers who had to endure the many inconveniences and unpleasantness spawned from this endeavour. Can hardly blame them, really.. we'll get to that. Headlines screamed the plethora of wrongs, heck, the entire yellow pages A-to-Z catalogue of issues. As Alex Yoong put it to me, "it was to be expected".
In a conversation I eavesdropped in, some folks did ask why it had to be done in the city, when the country already has that butterfly-shaped circuit out in the ladang kelapa sawit (palm tree estate). Another guy answered, why not? "bila depa katup habih jalan nak masuk pi PJ tu, trafik lagi burok dari ni, orang buat bising, depa tak stop pun. hat yang tu pun bukannya buleh nak tengok apa-apa? Hat ni depa tutup buleh lah tengok mentokar racing." (Translated: "when they closed off the road to go into PJ -- I am assuming he means Jalan Universiti which is now a maze of one-way streets that no human can possibly decipher -- people complained but they didn't stop the work. And with that one, it's not like you get to look at anything nice, here you can see nice racing cars".) But that guy was a minority, poor man.
Well, can't please everyone.
But the organisers, to their credit, persevered, and the reward was an FIA Grade 2, tough, tight and challenging street circuit that had some of the country's most iconic landmarks as an enviable backdrop, with an equally enviable assemblage of incredibly fast and loud race cars in the city, the likes of which most of us city dwellers might not regularly see.
Now, there's always something rather special about street circuits. The majority of drivers I've worked with, interviewed, or know have a love affair with it. Racing fans love it. TV loves it. You have to admit it looks great on TV when the cars zip past the landmarks that are unique and particular to that city. Even the entire Formula e championship is built around street circuits in some of world's major capital cities.
Don't get me wrong, closed circuits have their own unique features, virtues and atmosphere, and the action is different. But, street circuits does one thing better - it brings the racing much closer to the people. Being down with the crowd at the KL City GP, you could see the sense of excitement or at least, curiosity on their faces, some buried underneath the folds of that nasty scowl.. heck, I am an optimist.
It's a bird.. it's .. Super-what?
Granted, KL-ites have seen Jean Alesi, Pedro Diniz, Felipe Massa, Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton power their F1 cars on the streets of KL before. Malaysians have even seen their own Jazeman Jaafar at the wheel of an F1 car on Jalan Ampang.
But, those were demo-runs and not actual races. And they were F1 cars, which everyone in Malaysia is very much familiar with. (Another disclaimer: In past demos, the national oil company had showcased other teams from touring cars / endurance championships and rallying but F1 was always the highlight.)
This time, the KL City GP was bringing to light other motorsport championships that many have never seen, let alone heard of, unless of course you are a petrolhead and religiously follow all the different race car series that exist in the world, and there are many.
On top of the KL City GP GT Cup race, there were three championships which were being featured: the junior formula single-seater, open-wheel Formula Masters China Series; the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia Series; and finally, the Australian V8 Supercars Championship - arguably one the most exciting championships to hit our shores.
Wait.... what? What exactly were we being shown here?
It is probably fair to say that quite a big chunk of the population is familiar with F1, after all we've had 17 years of it here on our own soil. It is also probably fair to say that the vast majority of Malaysians know MotoGP quite intimately, having had the boys on two wheels race in our backyard in Shah Alam and Sepang for a quarter of a century.. oh yeah, *note to self - 2015's Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix will be Malaysia's 25th edition ..
It's also a fact that a significant portion of Malaysians are also familiar with the Malaysian Cub Prix Championship, the country's strongest and best-organised national motorcycle racing championship - hands-down - with average attendances in the tens of thousands at each round.
So, when whispers of the KL City GP began to circulate, quite a few people that I spoke to were left wondering. As one gentleman kindly put it to me, "if it isn't F1 or MotoGP, what is it then?" OK, pakcik*, here's my attempt to summarise the championships you saw over that weekend - disclaimers apply in favour of my need to simplify:
The Formula Masters China Series - Once upon a time, there was a junior formula championship in existence in this corner of the earth where young go-karters could go to in their pursuit of a racing career in single seaters. It lasted a good while, but like all good things, it started to wind-down. So that category evolved, in name at least, and got a temporary lease of life before eventually fading away, though it did not disappear completely. Anyway, in 2013, a new junior formula category was born - the Formula Masters China Series, taking the honour of being the new platform for young talents to progress their racing ambitions.
The formula car uses a Tatuus FA010 carbon monocoque chassis, which is FIA F3 standard and is powered by a Formula Evo 2.0 FSI engine from Volkswagen. What is a bit different to its predecessor aside from how it looks is that it comes from and belongs to the same family as its elder racing category siblings - the Scirocco R-Cup China, Audi R8 LMS Cup (where Alex Yoong races), Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia and Porsche Carrera Cup Asia. They're all under the Volkswagen Group China umbrella and adopt the group's ideals towards talent development.
The Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia - is the younger sibling to the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Championship, which began in Europe in 2009. After three years in Europe, its growth ambitions took them East to Asia in 2012 with races held in Shanghai, Okayama and Sepang. Comprising a line up of both gentleman drivers and young upcoming GT racers, the championship is touted as the fastest one-make series utilising the jaw-droppingly good-looking and very handsome Lamborghini Huracán.
After seeing one in action and getting to sit in for a no holds barred ride in a Lamborghini Gallardo recently, the only thing I could think of was - oh mamma mia, è una bella macchina così! per favore, perché??!
Anyway.... the new Huracán has been developed in collaboration with Dallara engineering and is built on the direct-injected V10 engine from the road car. In race trim, the car can generate over a whopping 600bhp...
Finally, the V8 Supercars Championship - put it this way, the US has its NASCAR, Australia has its V8 Supercars (disclaimer: that comparison is meant as purely perspective). Born down-under with New Zealand in the mix, the V8 Supercars sits in its own wonderful category and is Australia's 3rd most attended sport event and 4th most watched with broadcasts to over 105 countries and territories. The best part is that it's growing, and growing outside of Australia.
In 2010, the FIA granted the V8 Supercars international status allowing the championship to include events outside of Australia which saw the cavalry race in China, the Middle East and the USA. In August 2015, the championship came to KL as an exhibition event, and what's interesting is that from 2016, Kuala Lumpur will be a championship round, with ambitions to lock in two further venues in Asia from 2017, the same year as the Gen 2 Supercar role-out, designed to allow for the participation of more manufacturers into the series. Interesting. I'm keeping my eye on that.
Anyway, the action on the weekend itself did not disappoint and is fairly well documented, so I'm not going to write about the results here. Check out the videos, web-reports on the KL City Grand Prix youtube channel or website.
Craig Lowndes did say it was going to be loud, and bang on the mark mate, it was! And that's another thing that street circuits does better than closed circuits. With it being in the city, the closeness of the circuit to the buildings helps amplify the sound of the monster engines under the bonnets, elevating the sense of excitement on the ground.
And the excitement was infectious. I could tell that the majority of the motoring enthusiasts that I did bump into at the KL City GP were in their element. Not a single one remained in the comfort of the stifling and gagging air-conditioned media centre, opting to check out the array of supercars on display in the paddock. As they extracted facts from the mechanics, engineers and team owners, it was like being a kid in a petrolhead's version of legoland-meets-universal studios, with the use of the "oohs!!", "aahs!" and "wow!" being the predominant and prevalent choice of expressions.
Who needs English.. bahh! #lol
Hello.. I'm a professional race car driver and I'm Malaysian
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But perhaps what was probably more relevant to us, is that the KL City GP was also an opportunity to shine the spotlight not just on the different racing championships, but also the Malaysian drivers that are involved in them.
In other words, dear Malaysia, motorsports is more than Formula 1 and MotoGP, AND there are many Malaysians who fly the flag in other racing championships around the world, both on four and two wheels.
Ahead of the weekend itself, I got to speak to two Malaysians - Afiq Ikhwan Yazid (Super Trofeo) and Daniel Adam Woodroof (Formula Masters) - both of whom were thrilled about racing at the inaugural KL City GP and the excitement was naturally palpable.
Now, if you are a young racing driver, as Afiq and Daniel are, it is worth pointing out that the prevalent understanding and perception is that their ambitions ought to take them to F1, especially when that perception is fed on a constant diet made up of the abundant exposure to F1. The thing is, the KL City GP highlights that motorsports is more than F1, that there are other paths in motorsports, such as the path to becoming professional and successful race car drivers in other, non-F1 series. I mean, look at Le Mans, or WEC, or GTs, or DTM, or V8 Supercars, or IndyCar or SuperGT etcetera.. etcetera.. etcetera..
Which brings me to the crux of it.. education. My biggest hope from the KL City GP is that it would be able to provide Malaysians an insight into other championship series, especially those that are more relatable. More importantly, shed light onto those Malaysians who are racing in those championships and deserve our attention, like Afiq Ikhwan, who is incidentally, the only Malaysian inducted into Lamborghini's 2015 Young Drivers Programme.
That makes me beam with pride. He'll be heading off to Italy soon to help develop the Huracán and I can't wait to hear more about that. Though he had a disappointing weekend, and the accolades went to another Malaysian in the form of Fairuz Fauzy, Afiq's achievements shouldn't be brushed aside altogether either. Yes, he still has a long way ahead of him, and lots to prove, so I'm hoping he'll bounce back, fighting harder!
Perhaps it isn't too far fetched of an ideal to one day see a successful, professional Malaysian race car driver in any of the international championships, and not just in F1. And, Afiq is not the first as I can list those who have come before him who have notched up their own list of achievements that Malaysians can be proud of, like Fariqe Hairuman (touring cars and endurance racing), Eric Yeo (touring cars and endurance racing), Melvin Moh (who has been busy with AMG's driving academy), Dominic Ang (who is signed up for the Asian Le Mans series for the 2015/16 season) and Weiron Tan (the first and only Malaysian currently racing in the US Pro Mazda Championship, which is part of the Road to IndyCar ladder system) just to name a few.
In my untrained eyes, I see events like the KL City GP as having the potential to be, at the very least, the catalyst in creating some level of awareness not just for championships other than F1, but also to the plight of other Malaysian race car drivers who have made this incredibly difficult and competitive industry their life's vocation.
Bigger and better
And now that we know that the KL City GP is coming back in 2016, with dates yet to be confirmed, there is one more thing I wanted to bring up. Understandably with the 2015 event being the first, there are naturally plenty of things to build and improve on. But, there were a few aspects that got up a lot of people's skins, such as awareness, information and communication (and buy-in), which -- based on my random sampling of the public sentiment -- were glaringly absent.
I will say this though - and not in defence of or as a malicious critique - but perhaps the organiser's priorities weighed more heavily in getting certain aspects of the event done over others. In my experience and observations, PR, advertising, promotions, media relations and marketing communications have tended to be secondary priorities that often come in late to the game.
Perhaps an unfair general observation given that I am aware of and have had experience with two motor racing championships that balances every single aspect of running a championship beautifully and harmoniously well. But they've tended to be exceptions rather than the rule. Again, perhaps an over-generalisation on my part.
Could that have been the case here? I haven't the faintest clue but I will say this to the organisers: given the reactions in the build-up (negative and positive); the response from the weekend itself and the reviews from the teams, drivers and championships - you've got yourselves a good baseline in which to build and grow next year's event to be potentially (and hopefully) even better.
Building something like the KL City GP is like a symphony, no one person can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it, with every single section playing together in tune, in sync and in perfect harmony with each other, so that your audience can understand, buy into and appreciate the music you are trying to bring to them..
whoa, that's deep.. But, nuff said, I think.
*pakcik - uncle
