Motorsports is an expensive hobby. Competing for one season even in a banger could easily exceed a year or two worth of wages. And more often than not for most privateers, motorsports is a financial black hole, a futile psychological tension between prudent logic that wants to stop you from dumping more money to chase that last tenth of a second and pure ignorance and wishful thinking that you can actually win some prize money. Most enthusiasts resign to the fact that they can only be armchair enthusiasts. But once in a while, something comes along and creates an opportunity for a lucky few to break through the ranks.
One such pairing that was given this opportunity is Ong Boon Keat aka OBK and Francis Lai aka Keng, thanks to a reality TV series called Zero2Hero, currently in its second season. The series offers 6 months of rally training, with the winner taking home a rally spec car to be used in Malaysian Rally Championship (MRC), rally tires sponsorship from Silverstone, fee waiver for MRC, and RM1.5k cash for use in each round of the competition. Below is a profile video shoot of them.
Meet them in person, OBK and Keng are not your stereotypical boy racers. They are IT professionals by day that moonlights as wheelmen by night, nor do they drive the usual loud boy racer cars. Although OBK has a "replica" Lotus Esprit lying in a garage somewhere, but more on that later.
Keng and OBK are long time friends from their university days. When OBK is not charming girls with his good looks and suave moves he can be found hanging around in workshops of Seri Kembangan. Francis meanwhile comes from a family line that are involved with cars and motorsports in one way or another. His brother runs a garage called Nats Autoparts in Rawang. Keng was the rookie guy who started making his name when during a go-kart race, sliced his way through to the top pack from the back, but only to spin out after hitting a wet patch. But the new kid on the block has made his point. Keng's motorsports CV reads as below :
2009 Bukit Merah Rally, MRC, 6th in class
Drivers Series (karting), 11th in class
2008 Gokart Challenge 2008, Winner
2007 DCM: Drift clinic
2005 “Doin it sideways” rally show-off, 3rd in class
2004 Off the street (FWD drift), Winner
2003 Gymkhana training by Masaki Nishihara (BF Goodrich)
2002 SSO Drift (Proton), 9th in class
MMU Gokart challenge
2001 Gokart Challenge 2001 (Citibank), 8th overall
Keng and OBK thought each other on the finer art of drifting, in their crappy underpowered cars (precisely where greater skill are required) before graduating into more "traditional" forms of motorsport, i.e. rallying.
When OBK started making more moolahs, he bought one piece of shit Nissan Bluebird, have it stripped out, fixed up the rusted body and chassis, plonked in a SR20 block to built his very own drift machine. Until someone in particular who was trying out the vehicle lost it in a really bad way. Today it lies in a workshop awaiting repairs and is commonly referred to amongst OBK and Francis' fellow petrolhead peers as their Lotus Esprit.
So when Keng chanced upon Zero2Hero, he quickly asked OBK to join with only 2 days left before the audition day.
Gymkhana challenge during the audition.
Rally school
OBK and Keng sharing a light moment with Australian Cody Crocker, the most successful rally driver in Asia Pacific. He currently drives for the Motor Image Subaru Rally Team.
You can read more about their journey into rallying here at D24 blog. OBK and Keng have come a long way since their first audition for Zero2Hero 2. They have completed the necessary rally lessons under the guidance of FA Racing. OBK has been tutored in reading pace notes and tulips, Francis in finer art of rally driving while both have been trained on managing media relations by Diane Barton, organizer of Asia Pacific Rally Championship as well as Mr. Chris Carr, organizer of Australian round of the 2009 World Rally Championship.
OBK and Keng will debut in the Malaysian Rally, MR10, in Kota Tinggi Johor this April-23, in a Peugeot 206. Of course this author would love to see them in a full blown Group A specs Peugeot 206 similar to the one driven by the pairing of Marcus Gronholm and co-driver Timo Rautiainen when they won the 2000 and 2002 World Rally Championship, but reality of cost constraints and the lack support for local rallying scene meant that they would have to make do with bare minimal equipment.
Sponsorship enquiries are welcomed. They can be contacted at :
Francis Lai
email: francis.lyg@gmail.com
Ong Boon Keat
email: boon_k3at@yahoo.com
1 comments:
Nice writeup!
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