WHO would have guessed that our local celebrities can shine on the track, and not just the silver screen?
Eight of them — Fattah Amin, Shukri Yahaya, Diana Danielle, Janna Nick, Danny Koo, Geraldine Gan, Venice Min and Shawn Lee — made their racing debut at the inaugural Vios Challenge in Penang recently.
The Vios Challenge is a one-make race featuring 30 identical Toyota Vios racing cars.
There will be four races for this season’s Vios Challenge, which is the feature event at the Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) festival. The festival stretches through to the first quarter of next year.
“I have been given this great opportunity to race and I am sure many wish to be in my place so I will do my very best to give all out and of course to aim for podium!” said actress Janna, 21, who shot to fame in 2015 through the tear-jerker television series Syurga Nur.
While she did not make the podium, she definitely left a mark and we can expect to see more from this determined lass in the remaining stages.
Despite a heavy Saturday afternoon downpour, more than 10,000 spectators turned up at the Batu Kawan Stadium to see the drift exhibitions, stage shows, play games and, of course, join the celebrity meet-and-greet sessions.
Among the show-stoppers was the first northern appearance of the Toyota C-HR that led a convoy of Toyota AE86 owners around the Batu Kawan circuit.
There are three categories for the Vios Challenge: the Promotional Class (where our eight celebrities took part), the Sporting Class and the Super Sporting Class, which saw top racers attempting to challenge Malaysian professional drift driver Tengku Djan Ley Tengku Mahaleel.
The two scheduled races on Saturday were delayed by the race director for safety reasons.
The Sporting Class, which featured 16 Toyota Vios, started under safety car control before the drivers were allowed to go full bore a lap later.
Ken Foo from the Dream Chaser Team, who began in pole position, dominated the race together with Brendon Lim of Team Maxx N Go, and the pair gradually pulled out a gap over third-placed Patrick Tam.
Our celebrities started their race 30 minutes behind schedule, with Lee starting behind the pace car from pole position, which he earned in the qualifiers earlier in the day.
Fattah, who started alongside Lee, failed to capitalise on his great grid position as Shukri, who started third, bravely stuck his car on the inside of Turn 1, and picked up the the runners-up spot. Koo came third in the race.
The track was slippery and wet on Saturday, but the sun came out in full force on Sunday. The three classes of racing drivers were all pumped up to push their performance to absolute limits!
The opening ceremony at noon invited throngs of spectators into the starting grid to get up close and take pictures with all the Vios Challenge race cars and drivers.
Then, the 13 top-tier racing drivers from the Super Sporting Category took to the grid, led by pole sitter Djan of Team Maxx N Go, and Dream Chaser’s Mark Darwin alongside him.
Djan was quickly away with Darwin in tow, while Shafiq Ali had his hands full with William Ho breathing down his neck. Eventually, Djan won the 18-lap race, with a gap of more than 15 seconds before Darwin, and Ho coming in third.
Race 2 of the Promotional Category once again saw beatboxer Lee going on to win his second race of the weekend with Shukri and Koo completing the podium positions.
The turnout on Sunday eclipsed Saturday’s numbers with a visitor count of more than 28,000 at the very first TGR Racing Festival despite the erratic weather.
The next TGR stage is set for Nov 25 and 26 at MAEPS in Serdang, Selangor.