My 1st track day, HPC!!

I always wanted to drive at Sepang, and finally I got the chance to do so! The last time I planned to go is July 2008, which end up I had to forget it due to my drunktard accident.

Anyway, ever since I made my payment at early September, I am counting the days to track almost everyday! And when the day came, I was excited!

I left Summit Hotel at around 6.30 am, supposedly Mr. Choo is going to tag along, but then when I called him at 6.20am, he just woke up! So I decided to ditch him, and go to Dengkil R&R myself to met up with members from RX8clubMalaysia.

On my way there, saw a red RX8 also heading the same way as me, decided to give him a horn, and we both cruise slowly to Dengkil R&R, and its Calvin, who are also going to the track for the first time.

We both reach early, as in damed early, as we reached there at 6.45am. Nobody else was there yet, and we both eat something that doesn't taste nice at all, just to fill our stomach up while waiting for the rest to come.

Around 7.20am, other members of RX8clubMalaysia started to reach, and Mr. Choo finally arrived too. I forget to take some pics of it, so I had to shamelessly use pictures from Andrew's facebook and put it up here.

The 3 who park out of order:



And the rest......




After everyone reached, we convoy to Sepang. More than 10 cars are in the convoy, which include 1 unser, 1 swift and 1 350Z, and the rest are all RX8s.

Once reached Sepang, I headed directly to the registration counter as I heard it takes quite long and you have to queue up for it. Luckily for me, it takes merely 5 minutes.

Putting up the huge number sticker:



After putting up the stupid sticker, all of us are briefed through some track rules and flag signal. We were also assigned to our own instructor for that day.

At 9am sharp, HPC officially start. Group 2 started enter the track, while me who is in Group 1, the noob group for those who had absolutely no track experience use the time to take some picture around while waiting for my turn.



Group 2 session finish at 9.25am, and time for me to rock and roll. I was anxious, and wearing a helmet inside a car is really stupid and hot, especially without air corn!

Driving to the track....



On track and going slowly.....



First two lap is just driving normally, where you no need to really brake when you enter a corner, just like everyday driving. This is just to let you familiar yourself with the track. The real fun starts the third lap where you can start to push yourself to the limit.

While trying to understand RWD and the track more, I slowly increase my pace. A few times I almost spin as I accelerate too much halfway through the corner, luckily it didn't happened.

After 25minutes on track, time to go back into pit. First session on track actually made me scared abit, as in scared that cars following me behind can't manage to stop in time and hit me at the back when entering corner due to my early brake and stuff. I am also sorta exhausted after that as I am sweating like hell.

I got 50minutes to rest till my next session, and Chin Hong and Junloong were here already. Haven't met with Junloong for more than a year liao, and almost forget his face. Sorry ya :p

He just bought his DSLR not long ago, but he is good at it, and I especially like this picture of my car that he took! Great job!



My 2nd session starts soon, and it's actually turn out better. I am able to go faster this time around.

Zoom zoooommmm......



and....potong!!!!!!! woooto.....



My favorite session is still the last one though, as for the first 2 session, I never got a chance to play with other RX8s, as I guess our lap time is similar, hence we are always on the other side of the track.

However, on the third session, 3 Rx8 manage to zoom pass me, before I manage to overtake two of them after that. Also, I was tailing a silvia almost like 60% of my time at the track, but totally unable to overtake him as his car is too fast when on straight :( But what the heck, it's FUN!!

In the end of the day, my instructor comment on me was "you are driving OK, but you brake too early, before braking point you already brake, hence when approaching corner, you find that you are too slow, you accelerate again, ended up you enter the corner too fast, leading to car under-steer and slow exit".

I will learn on it, and try to increase my ball size soon :D

After having lunch with Mr. Choo and pick up my luggage at Summit Hotel, I head straight back to my hometown.

I stopped by at Autocity for dinner, and we went for the Schezuan Restaurant there. It turns out not bad.

The "Mapo Toufu" is good, as authentic as it can be. It's really hard to find such good and original "Mapo Toufu" here in Malaysia.

My rating "Mapo Toufu": 8.5/10



The "Sui Zhu Pork Meat" is good too, however, the appearance of the dish is scary.....

Look at the amount of chili man!



However, it's not really that spicy, manageable for me. It's really good, but I guess 99% of the people ate it will say too oily, which for me it's just nice as it's the way how it's should be cooked.

My rating "Sui Zhu Pork Meat": 8/10



I will definitely come back to this restaurant again in the near future, and same goes to Sepang!!!