Auditory Abuse

1:21pm - 29 November 2006 - 1,057 views - 7 Comments
Posted in: Events

Last Sunday, the A1 Grand Prix was held in the Sepang International Circuit. My friend Jia Leong had free tickets for the event, so I thought it’d be a great chance to finally have my first look at our very own world-class (so called) racing circuit. The first thing I found out about SIC was – it’s far. So very far. It took about 40 minutes of not-so-slow drive from my place. Considering there were 4 of us sitting in the back of the car, the 40 minutes turned out to be painfully long

The first things we saw when we reached were lots of Lotus Elise’s. There must have been at least a dozen of them. Too bad there weren’t any Exige’s, I think. (Update: Now I think there were. I think this orange one is an Exige itself)

_{Orange Elise! Exige!}

However, there weren’t much of other things to see besides the Elise’s. Well… can’t expect much from a racing circuit can we?

This is the K1 stand that we were supposed to go to.

_{K1 Stands. Still sunny}

Instead, my friend Jia Leong contacted his friend who had tickets to the Mall Grandstands. (Notice where K1 is. It would have been boring if we were stuck there.)

_{The Mall Area has the best views of the track}

We walked around the Mall Area for some time, scouting for locations with the best view. We decided that the Topaz/Citrine stands had the best coverage we could practically see half of the track from there. However, the Ruby/Garnet stands were also interesting because of the trademark hairpin at Turn 15. So we alternated back and forth whenever we wanted a change of view.

But before that, we had a bad feeling.

_{Not so sunny anymore}

We quickly settled down at the spots we chose. There were already ‘races’ going on before the real A1 race started.

_{So fast-lah! *sarcasm*}

_{Still not that fast but at least they look cooler than fat Savvy’s and Neo’s}

The sky turned darker every minute.

_{Light vs Dark. Dark is winning. The Force is missing.}

The opening ceremony started off with some dance by people dressed in every imaginable cultural dress.

_{Sakai’s. Literally.}

Then the drivers made their grand entrance. My friend suddenly said “why so yellow until look like banana-lah”.

_{Alex Yoong led the pack.}

Right before the race started, it rained heavily. Si beh kek tiok. On the bright side, it wasn’t so hot anymore

_{A couple of cars actually skidded in the rain during the warm-up session.}

Wei How started to munch on his TEN RINGGIT hotdog. Siao. They wouldn’t even let us bring in our water (which I managed to do so ) and yet they’re trying to bleed our wallet to death.

_{TEN BUCKS.}

The race finally started after a while. Immediately, it’s quite apparent who will win the race. Nico Hülkenberg of Germany led throughout the race and opened a very wide gap from the very beginning. His position was never being challenged, even when it was time for his pitstop.

_{Nico Hülkenberg of Germany}

Our Alex Yoong however, wasn’t doing too well. He started off at 4th position and from then onwards, he was so easily passed by racers from the back as though he was dreaming. He dropped pretty far behind, until he went for his pitstop. He came back with a fresh set of tires and with that, he was finally able to catch up with some of the racers but it was a little too late. He ended the race in 7th position.

_{The flying banana.}

I didn’t mention that sound from the cars were loud… but they weren’t. They were [INSERT EXPLETIVES]-THUNDEROUSLY-DEAFENINGLY-EARSPLITTINGLY LOUD. In a while, things got a little unbearable. I couldn’t take pictures properly because it was just too loud. Wei How then gave me something that saved the day.

_{They saved my ear drums.}

Even with so much tissue stuffed into my ears, the sound was still extremely loud. Albeit it was more bearable after that. At least my hands are free from covering my ears so I could continue taking pictures. Anyhow, once the race was completed, the podium winners were then given their trophy and the usual champagne bath. The media helicopter was flying dangerously low during that time to get a good coverage.

_{Very nabeh pilot}

People started to leave. And there were lots of them. Fortunately the crowd barely filled the grandstands, so there were relatively few people actually. It could have been a lot more. I took the liberty of taking a few more pictures before leaving too. Then it was another long drive home.

And more sore butts.