2007.06 Grass Racing Autocross Championship Round 1 http://andygohyf.smugmug.com/gallery/2957216_6ZTiL/ Grass Racing Autocross Championship Round 1 3rd June 2007 Shah Alam Stadium Car Park, Selangor, Malaysia Grass Racing Autosports also known as GRA is back! A total of 90 cars took center stage over the weekend to do some serious racing on the Shah Alam car parks. GRA with the collaboration of main sponsor BFGoodrich Tires, has been able put the new series together for 2007 to move grassroots motorsports into high gear. The series this year would consist of a full championship consisting of 5 rounds to find the ultimate autocross champion. With the efforts of GRA with BFGoodrich Tires, it is possibly the only grassroot event that spans the highest number of entries for any single race car event. For 2007, GRA have also gained sponsorships from Redline Oils, Arospeed and Meguiars’ Automotive Detailing Products. “We are really appreciative of the efforts and support by the various sponsors in funding the GRA Autocross Championship”, said Ian Khong, Clerk Of The Course for the event. For 2007, a new format has been introduced whereby the novice and seasoned drivers have been split-up. The categories also known as the Grass Class and the Pro-Grass Class respectively will run differing layouts. Now with the categories split, novice drivers are able to compete on a more equal basis amongst other novices. The cars however, would still need to comply with certain safety requirements and modification restrictions. GRA has also introduced a new category for automatic cars. Being grassroots, one should be able to race the car one drives to work. That is why GRA has become a favorite amongst enthusiast. “Racing should be fun, safe and affordable. Now with the new automatic category, we should be seeing some interesting results and ‘battles’ amongst the competitors!, explains Jiannin, Event Organizer of GRA. Testimony of GRA’s quest in providing a real community based racing, they have a large following in their www.grassracingautosports.com website and forum. Ronald Sutardja, Managing Director of BFGoodrich Tires explains “ ..the feedback from the drivers and community has been great. That is why we are continuing in collaboration with GRA into making BFGoodrich Tires synonymous with grassroots motorsports in Malaysia”. In the Pro-Grass class, the Lotus cars took all top three spots with Hisham Jahudi, Marcus Chye and Dominic Ang dominating all 3 positions in Overall and in the OD class. Ivan Khong followed in 4th Overall and Mickey Teoh in 5th Overall respectively. In 6th place, Christopher Chin piloting a Honda Civic, newly promoted driver from Novice class last year, was ahead of seasoned driver Soo Seng Kuan in 7th place also in another Civic. Julian Pang in his Team Redline Proton Wira only managed 8th Overall, ahead of many other faster cars in his class. The fastest driver of the day from the Grass Class was Jason Foo, piloting a Proton Satria GTI 1800cc. GRA provides a new avenue for corporate partners to showcase their products and put it to the test with real avid drivers. Mr. Howard Goh, Managing Director of Redline Oils explains, “…grassroot motorsports allows us to introduce the various range of products that we have to offer ”. New to the sport of Autocrossing, “ ….we have always believed that fostering close ties through communities, automotive forums, car events will enable us to educate consumers in automotive detailing, and GRA is a good start for us”, explains Mr. Johan Wong, Sales & Marketing Manager for Meguiars’. The long awaited GRA Autocross Championship is currently the only grassroot car event in the country. GRA consisting of only Ian and Jiannin has been able to grow the community tremendously. The organization being only a year old, is already making a mark amongst avid enthusiasts, and is setting the stage for bigger things to come. Lookout for Round 2 in July 2007. http://www.smugmug.com/img/feed-icon.png Motorsports Wed, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 -0800 Tue, 05 Jun 2007 19:05:27 -0700 http://www.smugmug.com/ Copyright 2009, the copyright holder of each photograph. Some portions copyright SmugMug. All rights reserved. http://andygohyf.smugmug.com/Motorsports/2007-Images/200706-Grass-Racing-Autocross/IMG0094/159830747_6XpeB-Ti.jpg 2007.06 Grass Racing Autocross Championship Round 1 http://andygohyf.smugmug.com/gallery/2957216_6ZTiL/