D24: Rally.Drift.Touge.Kart: D24 @ APRC 2009

Ever since graduation, there hasn't been much activities for D24 members due to work commitments. Hanging out together is tough, let alone having a road trip. So when the producer told us that we'll be going to Johor Bahru to be part of Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), Keng and OBK were practically jumping for joy! Finally, D24's hope for a road trip is here, and what makes it even better is the fact that this trip is not just an ordinary trip coz we'll be watching APRC live in front of our own eyes! This has been something that Keng and OBK had always wanted to do.

Finally, the much awaited day has arrived. At the strike of midnite, Keng arrived in his ~~carriage~~ car at Cyberjaya Petronas station. After freshening up at the station, we started on our 400km journey down south.. where the excitement awaits us..

After some long and painful hours (obk managed to stay awake, thanks to ginger sweets), we finally reach the tol booth. After paying tol, Keng whipped out a road tulip for directions, created by Alan and Masri. The tulip is precisely crafted, and without much issue, we've reached our destinatation - Hotel Aromas.

We were dead tired the moment we reached the hotel. So, we've decided to 'get' a room and rest for a couple of hours before the big day.

They asked us to take the stairs :(

We woke up 2 hours later feeling ultra cranky due to lack of sleep. We quickly clean ourselves up, packed our PSPs into the backpack, had breakfast and proceed to the meeting point that morning -- The Zon Hotel, JB

Upon reaching at the meeting room & registered ourselves, we were given new T Shirts and also an identification tag for the exciting weekend. Not long after that, we were ushered into a big lecture hall (reminds us of the uni days) where we were briefed bout the 1st activity of the day -- the media challenge.

But first, before the challenge, it's lecture time, yeah, same as uni days. We were lucky enough to have APRC event's PR director Ms. Diane Barton as our mentor for the media challenge. This interesting lecture mainly teaches us public relation as well as ways to handle the media during an interview.

After the lecture, they split us into 5 groups. Fortunately enough, both of us landed in the same group. Each group were given a name as well as a scenario for the media challenge, we were named Magic Ad, and each member of the group is tasked to play a role in the challenge, namely they were: the rally driver, the co driver, the team manager, and the medias. Our scenario is pretty simple, the driver had been caught in a road bully situation a couple of days ago; after the race, the media asked for his comment on the situation.

The breakdown of the group are as followed: Keng will be the driver, JJ (J.O. rally team) will be the co driver, Alan (AMM) will be the team manager, while OBK, Jimmy, and Kumar will be the members of the medias.

The challange is evaluated not only by Ms Diane Barton, the organizer of WRC Australia 09, Mr Chris Carr was present as well.

The challenge went on rather well I would say, however there was a tensed moment when Keng was stoned by one question from Mr Chris Carr. Luckily Alan was there to rescue.

After the challenge, we were given a break. We took the time to roam around The Zon shopping center to search for cheap Puma racing shoes. After some searching, we finally found it! However there are no sizes available for us :(

As we were walking towards the hotel lobby, we were thrilled when we saw the new Proton Satria Neo S2000 rally car parked right in front of the hotel. It look so freaking awesome! We were thinking how nice it would be if we can get a taxi ride in that car driven by our hero Mr. Karamjit Singh.

After the break, we were ushered again into a hall, where we would witness the Media Session for APRC drivers. We were ultra excited to meet the drivers and co drivers of the APRC championship, namely Cody Crocker, Emma Gilmour, Taguchi, Karamjit, and many more.

After the media session, we stayed back for the MRC driver's briefing, where we were later introduced to our rally team for the weekend, NK-SS rally team. We will be working as the service crew for the team during the MRC round. The husband and wife team - Clayton Check and Tracy Li came all the way from Hong Kong to participate in this MRC round. They were surprised when we talked to them in Cantonese, which is the native language of Hong Kong. We were told to meet a guy named Suresh at the service park the next day. Keng and OBK are looking forward to assist the team the next day.

Night fell, we gathered at Zon hotel outdoor carpark, where we will be witnessing the Opening Ceremony of APRC Johor Bahru for the first time. All the competitors' car were parked at the ceremonial area. It's such a good sight to see so many rally cars and such a huge crowd gathered to see the event. As soon as the Guest of Honour (TMJ) arrived, the ceremonial start begun. One by one the competitors drove their car up the ramp and is flagged off by the TMJ. Deep inside, Keng and OBK hoped that next year, it'll be their turn in action.

Look at those cars..

After the ceremony, we went for a drink and headed back to the hotel soon after that. We were kind of nervous about the next day, and hoped it'll be a great day working as service crew for the 1st time.