Time Attack At Sepang: Rainy Sunday With The LMY 'Snails'

It began with a simple question from a good friend of mine, Zairul whether we would be going to Sepang to cheer on the boys from the local garage LMY Automobile & Services Sdn Bhd. Three of the LMY ‘Snails’ boys (named after the shape of a turbo unit, not the Gastropode)  had entered the time attack challenge organized by a famous Malaysian website called Zerotohundred.com together with local track day organizers HPC Motorsports. The event was called Time To Attack: Sepang coinciding with Zerotohundred’s 10th anniversary. It was held on the 9th of May, 2010 at the Sepang International F1 Circuit (SIC).

I agreed mainly because there were no other activities for me to do in the day, and the boys would surely use more support from their friends, as well as giving them useful (and useless) pointers. So at about eleven in the morning, we headed towards Sepang from the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Petaling Jaya. Upon reaching Sepang, it started raining. I turned towards Zairul and mentioned that it was going to be a wet time trial. And it was.

We turned into the SIC and there already was a steady drizzle coming down. We started looking for our friends, namely LMY’s proprietor, Andy Lee, who was entering his limited edition Subaru Impreza STI S204 under the Turbo-Road Tire category. He was in the midst of the briefing when we caught up to him. The briefing was the usual safety stuff and the rain caused havoc to the participants.

Whilst the briefing was being carried out, the HPC track day event was still on going and there were cars (like the 430 Scuderia pictured above) still doing laps on the very wet SIC track. There were lots of participants in the track day session. The track day participants were from Malaysia and also from neighboring Singapore, where many make this pilgrimage up north to Sepang for any track day session available. Lots of Singapore registered Suzuki Swift Sports, Alfa Romeos and Honda Civic Type Rs took part for the track session that morning.

Now back to the business of the time attack challenge. We waited for the boys to finish their briefing and we knew that the rain was worrying some of the participants. That and the fact that since most were amateurs, no-one was really prepared for the downpour. This was with the exception of some actual race teams which took part in this event for actual track time due to the fact that all cars were timed by a transponder (see pic above), making the event a pretty useful practice session for them. Some however were extremely unprepared, telling the officials that they had only brought full slicks...for a very wet afternoon. Ah, tragic.

The event was supposed to start at 1.00pm, but the rain caused havoc with the telemetry equipment resulting in a long waiting period for those participating in the time attack. The boys from LMY who were participating, were garage proprietor cum tuner extraordinaire Andy Lee (the gentleman in purple), Mr K.Y Jun and Mr. Y.C Foo. Andy driving the limited edition WRX STI S204, Jun and Foo their WRX STI blobeyes.

These cars are real giant killers. The S204 (above, right) run by Andy has an engine that makes an adequate 390bhp at the wheels and an adequate 510Nm of torque. The two STIs (Foo's ride - above, left) make around 320bhp at the wheel and 420+Nm of torque. All from the 2.0l-litre engine. This time attack event is supposedly a test run for the boys who have always gone for open track days at SIC but never anything as semi-serious as this. Semi serious because all of us were still cracking jokes and the mood was as if it were still a normal track day session.

All categories had to post their first run in the rain, which provided an equal challenge for all participants. The first up in the pouring rain were the NA or Normally Aspirated cars like the Honda Civic Type R above. This first round started a good one hour late. It was still raining and it caused the telemetry systems to go haywire. More waiting for us meant that we had to have lunch. Finding lunch in Sepang is actually hard. We managed to grab some of the last remaining burgers being sold at a food stall right at the entrance of the pits.

Andy had mentioned that he was pretty worried about turn 9. He remembers from his days of racing Protons from his Saga cup days as well as his other track excursions, that turn 9 (which is a downhill tight left hander) becomes a giant puddle when it pours. The line when it rains is to take the corner right at the middle of the track instead of the usual ‘hitting the apex’ stuff.

The waiting continued as after the NA session, they started calling out the supposedly supercar/open class class. Here we see two Ferraris, one a F430 Novitec Rosso in Matt Grey, a F430 Barchetta in Black, a Mercedes SL55, a full Team Aston Martin China V8 Vantage N24 Asia Cup race car, a Porsche 997 911GT3 RS, race prep Honda DC5 Integra Type R and a Lotus Exige as well as an Evora to name a few. These are brave people as you can see from the photos, as it was pouring out there.

If I were to mention drive-by noise, the race Aston Vantage and the GT3RS were the main contenders for the prize of most vocal participant. The Aston sounded like a Spitfire tearing up the skies and the GT3RS was even more magnificent than the F430 Novitec Rosso that participated. Nearly all of us watching the Aston roar past wanted one after this. “You drive a what? Nissan GT-R? Is that a Datsun? I drive an ASton.” We joked about the Aston Martin while waiting for time to pass.

And to pass our time even more, we unofficially timed one or two of the cars in this category. The GT3RS pictured above doing a 3minutes 12secs and the 430 Barchetta doing a 3minutes 14secs. As a benchmark, a stock Honda Civic Type R (4door) could lap SIC in around 2 minutes 45 seconds in the right hands. It was wet, so we could understand why they weren’t pushing their cars too hard.

By then it was the turn for Turbo-Road category and the boys started getting ready. Safety harness on, and helmets too, they headed for the exit of the pit to be let off. Each car is given three to four laps per session. The first lap being the out lap and the best of the following laps would be counted as their flying lap. Stopwatches and cameras ready. We set off towards the pitwall for more unofficial lap counting of our own.

The STIs were impressive up to a point when we realized that the Front Wheel Drive Golf Mk5s (like this one above) that were in the same lap as theirs were doing better lap times. The STIs were doing about 3m 08s and the Golfs nearly a second better. We were at first slightly surprised. The thought that All Wheel Drive was the king of the wet was being thrown out of the picture here at SIC.

Then upon some thinking, Zairul mentioned, “It was all the traction control stuff in the VWs. They must work really well”. This was the magic of the stock Traction Control Systems (TCS) built into the Golfs. This is something to think about if you intend to drive in the wet. Even All Wheel Drive may need TCS assistance, especially when you have around 400 to 500Nm of torque to control with only your right foot and some torque controlling centre differential  the DCCD system) on the STIs.

When Andy, Jun and Foo made their way back to the pits after their first session we got a first hand account of the very wet track experience. Foo and Andy posted the same 3minute 8 seconds and 3minute 9seconds respectively. Jun was disappointed with the handling of his car.

All agreed that the conditions were treacherous. All had to work overtime and to sum it all up Andy mentioned that his testicles may have gone for a swim somewhere on track as this man, whom I’ve seen on video taking on a F430 at SIC on a dry day and win, said that he got scared halfway through the session. It was oversteer or understeer everywhere!

Yes, the discussion was pretty heated. But the mood was still jovial. These guys were here to have fun. I even poked fun at the nonchalant way the guys were treating this time attack event. Foo didn’t even bother to remove the umbrella he kept wedged at the side of the passenger seat. “For fun, la” in typical Malaysian accented English (where nearly everything ends with a 'la').

Later on, the rain stopped and the track started drying. It was still damp everywhere and on the final run two others chaps also driving the Subaru Impreza STI took the top two spots in the final results of the Turbo-Road category. Andy came in third, with tires down to 50% and still on slightly less aggressive camber than he would have liked. I suppose the ‘right foot’ traction control works better in the damp than in the wet as this time the Imprezas were ahead of the Golfs.

We later found out that a Nissan GT-R which competed in the Supercar/open class lapped Sepang in 2minutes 30secs in damp conditions, with the younger brother of Fairuz Fauzy – the Lotus F1 reserve driver, Farez who like his older brother races cars too, at the helm. The speed of the GT-R and its driver was impressive as a fully race prepared Aston Martin on Michelin rain tires could only manage being 4 seconds slower. This shows that talent is an important factor too aside from a very well prepared car.

Now compare the GT-R's lap time in the Supercar or unlimited category driven by a trained race driver on proper tires with the fastest Impreza WRX STI? Between 7 to 8 seconds behind. Not bad for a car with at least a 100bhp deficit (some of the Imprezas had a lot of horsepower more than stock, but not 500bhp like on the GTR and road tires) and about 25,000 Pounds extra in price. This was still an impressive showing by the previous generation of Impreza STI.

This event is grassroots racing at its best. There weren't any trophies or prizes of any sort. Everyone entered for the fun of it and some used it for practice for other events. The rain managed to create a different atmosphere than what I was expecting. It was at least cool and not the usual ridiculously hot and humid weather here at Sepang.

It was a good outing with the ‘Snails’, which were pretty fast, and not snail-like even when it rained cats and dogs here in Sepang. Again, a round of applause to all those who participated in this wet event as it was white knuckles, wet pants and lots of teeth clenching out there on that Sunday.

Photos: Baharudin Ide of Sharptone Photographic (a big thank you to you Baha!) and yours truly.