“Tokyo Drift” Practice & Qualifying, Sunday
Today is my last chance to make something of it!
The car felt good throughout the morning practice session. I didn’t waste time and managed to get about 9 laps. Much easier to drive now without having to worry about the gearbox.
Asuka had her job cut out, fine tuning the initiation point and making sure I’m about 1 meter off the first clip. It’s really important to really get the tail hanging out as far as it can go, heading towards the outer clip, right at the initiation point. The guys called it “Kakkin”. The infield is pretty straight forward. The impact comes from entry to the 1st corner.
Again, driver introduction first before we started qualifying session. I was calm and relaxed today. The car is working fine, and I’m relatively confident with my lines. I’m in group C which gave me time to hang about and watch qualifying. My turn was coming up and based on the overall performance today, I needed a minimum of 99.9 to qualify.
My first run was not spectacular. I was a bit nervous to begin with, so i decided to take it easy. No point screwing up my first run as it would kill my confidence for the next 2. My points was not announced so I guessed it would be below 99 points.
I pushed harder on the 2nd run, with better and earlier initiation into the first corner. Got a clean run but Asuka said that initiation had to be quicker, faster and more angle. 99 points.
So 3rd and final run. It’s all or nothing. This time I flicked it, clutched kicked and a dab of handbrake to really get it hanging. I kept it together into turn 1 and made sure throttle application was smooth throughout the course. At the finish line I was thinking to myself, this might be a good run.
Shan came running to the car at pit area. I just kept my finger crossed hoping for the best. She looked at me, smiled and said “99.5 points! goodwork!”
I was like “OH MY GOD, there goes my chances of qualifying”. Top 10 qualifiers were a 100 points each, 11th - 16th position 99.9 points. I finished in 25th position. Drifters like Tanaka & Yoshioka too didn’t qualify for both days. Kumakubo, Saturday’s champion, didn’t qualify for Sunday. This shows the level of performance these boys executed during qualifying.
Nevertheless, I am happy to be here, competing with the best, learning and improving all the time. The experience is priceless.
I would like to thank all parties involved in making this happen for Malaysia. D1 Grand Prix Malaysia, Bridgestone Malaysia, NISMO, Garage SIFT, Shan who has been supporting me since day 1 and everyone else who believe I can do it. Thanks for the support. We’ll get them next time.
