The 3rd edition of Sepang1000km race has been a great test of Team Kegani Racing spirit of competition, being challenged by 21 cars in the 1.6 Class that pressures SIC,the organizer to imposed a handicap weight ballast of 250kg into our TOYOTA Celica race car, with such decision being made just 6 days(meeting on Sunday) before the race. With sponsors, customers and friends support, we’ve fought through the odds when our team advisor, Mr.Frank O’Shannessy addressed one of the articles(art.60 pg.19) stated in the Automobile Association of Malaysia rules (AAM), under the FIA Competition Rules and in agreement of the Clerk of Course to accept our entry and the other Celica entrants without condition on Wednesday evening.
At lap 16, Kenny felt the car was down on power at corner exit and suspect that it was a fuel related problem, and radio our race engineer for a pitstop. As soon as refueling completed and informed on the amount of capacity refueled, we realized that the fuel consumption was high. A few checks was done during the 2nd stint by Chris O’Shannessy but by lap 32, the car was dry of fuel again.
With support by Adaptronics(Engine Management system), Mr.Andy Wyatt, we had a quick discussion and possible fuel trim to be done on the fuel map, an editted fuel map was then loaded into the ECU. Despite changes been done for few times, the fuel consumption remains the same. Through the short stints and time took for refueling, we have lost time and lost the race lead.
Despite the issue, we have work around our strategy to continue push our lap time as the race was still less than half of the 1000km.
At the pitstop after lap 94, we had a broken oil cooler and took us 20minutes to remove the cooler system. Kenny rejoined the race and drives conservatively to preserve the engine in fear of extreme engine oil temperature that could damage the engine. With a few moments that we had to pitstop with an empty fuel tank, Chris brought the car to the chequered flag and Team Kegani Racing finished the race at 2nd place in class. We were 11th place overall.
Thanks to the extra-ordinary engine oil performance of TOTAL Quartz RACING, we finished the remaining half of 1000km distance without an oil cooler, which is an extra-ordinary experience for us through many years of endurance racing. The hot oil temperature in the engine would normally get upto 140°C.
As soon as we pitted for refuel in the first stint, we realized that the protest by Class 2 competitors has took away 3 crucial(Monday-Wednesday) testing days from our team, where fuel predictions supposed to take place.
Team Kegani Racing clocked the fastest qualifying time of 2”39.605 and started the race at front row of the grid ahead of 28 cars. We finished the enduring 1000km race, despite encounter numerous obstacles before, during and after race, highly committed to maximize sponsors exposures. Our team 2nd driver Chris O’Shannessy set the 2011 Sepang 1000km lap record in the race with a 2.39.531 clearly showing we were the fastest car on the circuit by well over 3 seconds per lap and demonstrating the ability we have as a team and the strength in driver line up of Team Kegani Racing has achieved. Our race car was one of the best looking race car and had caught attention of many photographers, our team always being the outstanding TOYOTA runners of all time.
I would like to extend my appreciation to all my sponsors, partners and friends that supported Team Kegani Racing in Sepang1000km race event. It was such supports that kept our spirit of competitions alive. We hope the exposures generated by our team have already benefitting your brand with good exposures and raising sales figure, and most importantly, gain customers confidence.
Thank you and we will bring on our challenge for S1K-2012.
Team KEGANI RACING Co-Sponsor : |
TOTAL Oil Malaysia |
Product sponsors : |
ADAPTRONICS
WORKS Engineering
KIDO
T.M.Works
WESLEE Racing |
Team Management : |
KEGANI MOTORSPORTS |
Drivers : |
KENNY LEE/CHRIS O’SHANNESSY/KENNETH CHAN |
Team Manager : |
Lee Wee Tiong |
Team Advisor : |
Frank O’Shannessy |