So yesterday I went to the Asian Festival Of Speed at Sepang Circuit in Malaysia, managed to acquire a paddock pass and wander around for a bit, and grab some pics for you folks, just click for the fullsize pics.

All set for the journey - passes, some light reading and a drink. No pictures of my chariot to the event, although for those who are wondering, it was a blue 1.4 Citroen Berlingo, quite a funky car.



Upon arriving, there were various car clubs, mostly riced out cars with stock engines, but some were pretty nice. Most of them were Protons (actually Mitsubishi's) and Peroduas (Dihatsu's), which are very popular here in Malaysia for being cheap (Cars are expensive, as is tax and insurance).

So, after exploring there for a while, I headed up to the stands to watch the racing - there was nothing going on in the paddock and getting into the pits (although not possible with a paddock pass, many people were doing it anyway) was a bit tricky today.

There were 4 events - Formula BMW Asia, Formula Renault V6 Asia, Porsche Carrera Cup Asia and ATCC (Asian Touring Car Championship). Out of these events, I'd have to rate the tin tops as the more exciting to watch due to the larger grid (the formula cars only had about 10 cars per race) and the closer racing - the cars were always bumper to bumper and there was rarely a lone car. Unfortunately, I didn't get that many photos of the events due to the fact that I was on full zoom, and my camera focuses poorly (Canon A85 for those wondering), anyway - here are the best images from the bunch.

Formula BMW Asia

This is the first event of the day, and to be honest, it was pretty dull. The grid size was very small and after a few laps the cars were pretty spread out. It's a relatively new series though, so once more participants join and people learn the cars, it should become pretty interesting.




The most exciting part of the race - this car started smoking and the marshalls attacked it with fire extinguishers.

Formula Renault V6 Asia

This is a new series to the asian motorsports scene as well, although pretty popular in europe already. Even though we had very small grid sizes (8-10), the racing was pretty close in the first race, and exciting to watch.





My view of the second race, atop the pit garages! Unfortunately this race was a farce - there were 3 restarts and after a few laps, the pack was so spread out. Qualifying the previous day was more interesting.



Post Race -

Porsche Carrera Cup Asia

Another newcomer to the asian motorsports scene, this series was great to watch. Very close racing with lots of passing and a little contact. Compared to the european version, this series uses 997's instead of 911 GT3's.




By this point I started to explore the track a little more - tthe following pics were taken from the back straight, which compared to the start/finish straight offered a far superior view.




:lol: I think the bird wants to race too.


Asian Touring Car Championship

I've never heard of this series until now, but being a fan of BTCC and DTM, this was definately the main event for me. Due to the slower speed of the cars, the racing was incredibly close, there was a lot of passing and sliding around - it was pretty intense.

The two top teams at this event today were a BMW team and a Proton (Newer all Malaysian cars, not Mitsubishi's), I managed to get into the pits before the second race and grab some pictures of the teams hard at work in preparation for the start. The engine size difference between the two cars was rather strange, the protons engine looked tiny compared to the BMW.

Race time!

The lead BMW on the backstraight


With a Proton in hot persuit


Some of the other cars further back, that orange integra was incredibly loud, easily the loudest car of the day.


Midway through the race the BMW was far ahead, but the Protons weren't giving up, and were passing each other.


The rest of the pack were still at it, plenty of passing round here


The second slower BMW goes to pass a purple Integra


Whilst the 'tegs team mate fends off another car


Post race I went to the paddock to snap some cars, some were packed up pretty fast after scrutineering, so I only managed to grab these 4 pics. The bumpers on some cars were removed for transport.

Extra activities (Warning - Dorifto!)

During the day there was also drift practice in the paddock on a watered down track. Ironically, all the drivers with the nicer cars were pretty terrible at it, whilst the people in shitboxes were quite good.

AE86 Doriftoo!


Although being the ugliest car here, the driver was the best.


A few more






Midway through the racing they also had a drift show on the main straight. I managed to get a great view from the pit wall, but I only managed to snap a few photos due to everyone hogging the non glass areas.

Anyway, that concludes my trip. It was a great event and If I'm ever in this neck of the woods again, I'll most definately go. It's a shame that I have to head back to England a month before the SuperGT race here, but that's life. I'm also pretty bummed about forgetting my cameras CF card yesterday during qualifying, as I could have gotten tons of pics from the pits, but my uncle grabbed a few on his SLR, but he has to get the film developed, hopefully I should be able to upload the pics in a few days. There was supposed to be a pitwalk during the day, but I think it was cancelled due to things being behind schedule. I also made some small videos (320x240 ) that I might upload later too, but I'm on 56k so it'll take time.

Thanks for viewing, and thanks for abd for hosting the images.

Some good photos there m8 any chance do u have the lot in bigger size?

Click them for the full-size images

remove the "resized" part of the URL.