The Royal Kelantan Kart Prix

The Royal Kelantan Kart Prix was held last May 11th and 12th at the Tengku Mahkota Kart Circuit in Kota Bharu. The race was classified as the RMC round 2 and AMC round 1, both races were held at the same time and drivers for both entries race together throughout the weekend.

Well over 40 drivers from both local and international scene showed up to participate. International drivers included countries such as Japan, Sri Lanka, India, and Indonesia. Indonesian driver Ryan took 1st place in the senior category with locals Farriz Fauzy and Imran Zaharias trailing in 2nd and 3rd placing. The Junior category win was taken by star driver Calvin Wong after being second best to Fei Hong throughout the Heats and Pre-Finals.

As for our team, Cadet driver Brendan managed to clinched 5th place while all other three drivers from Senior Masters (Harry Anthony), Senior (Hairul Anwar) and Junior (Niki) categories faced yet another unlucky weekend. A slight case of food poisoning trouble Harry's performance while Niki and I encountered racing incidents in the Heats and Pre-Final. I manage to make it up by taking 11th place in the Finals.

The race was a plagued by series of unexpected and troubling events, one of which being the second qualifying due to a power failure disabling the lap times. Senior driver Hakim Faz faced major exhaustion and dehydration during the finals and passed out after entering the pits. While popular glam driver Raja Razman fresh from returning from Mecca was taken out during the finals and was sent flying into one of the ponds in the track. He claims of having a "wet race" and proceed to drying himself afterwards.

As the race was held in conjucntion with the Sultan of Kelantan's Birthday, The Sultan himself showed up to provide support for the race and drivers. He was accompanied by his wife Raja Perempuan Kelantan and son Tengku Mahkota Kelantan. The crowd was also showed up in the thousands with parade cars, food stalls and bike rallies to give their support.

Overall the race was indeed a success and kudos to the organizers for throwing such a race which is a definete improvement from round 1 in Sepang. Lets hope round 3 would be better. This is me signing off.