Sunday, August 15, 2010

Time to Attack

25th July

Zero To Hundred, a popular Malaysian auto forum held their second Time To Attack track session at Sepang. A friend was doing some coverage for Team Revo and I tag along for some fun.


The event was held in a time attack format, where cars were divided into sub-categories and allocated track time to set their fastest laps.










The brand new Lotus Evora was there to join in the fun..


Didn't spend too much time at track side this time around. I guess after Super GT, it's kinda hard to get excited over road cars. Anyway, back at the pit, I tried shooting other stuffs instead..




Also tried out some slow shutter shots and new editing style..






Of all the cars participating, I was particularly interested with the Audi R8. The engine note was sweet music.. I didn't get any shots of it on tack, bad timing I guess, so the next best thing was to take some shoots of it in the pit..










For the event itself, the results are as below..

Supercars

Abu Bakar – Lamborghini Gallardo – 2:34:314
Jason Wong – Nissan GTR R35 – 2:34.957
Mohd Azmil – Porsche 997 Carrera 2S – 2:37.875

GT Cars
Shedden Ed – Porsche Cayman S – 2:36.501
Adam Muza – BMW M3 CSL – 2:36:568
Nick Tan – BMW M3 – 2:46.118

Race Cars/Time Attack Machines
Ee Yoong Chern – Nissan Silvia S13 – 2:31.813
Reuben Wong – Proton Satria Neo Clubsport – 2:43.618
Yani Madewnus – Honda Prelude BA5- 2:52.282

Turbo 4WD
Gerald Tan – Mitsubishi Evo 9 – 2:32.279
Jon Teo – Mitsubishi Evo 6 – 2:32.664
Kelvin Teo – Mitubishi Evo X – 2:32.736

Naturally Aspirated – Front-Engine Front-Wheel-Drive (FF)
Colin Chow – Honda Civic Type R FD2R – 2:36.991
Ari 7474 Team 2:40′s – Honda Civic Type R FD2R – 2:38.567
Ng Tiam Lai – Honda Civic Type R FD2R – 2:39.127

Ee Yoong Chern recorded the fastest overall time in his Nissan Silvia S13 for the 2nd round of the Time to Attack challenge.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Escape to Paradise

9th July

It's has been ages since my last proper vacation. For the past year, all my trips has been work related and sometimes if I'm lucky I can squeeze in a day of walk around. So I was pretty excited about this trip to Sipadan.

To get to Sipadan, you need to take a flight to Tawau and then transit by road to the coastal town of Semporna. The road trip took about 1 hour. The Semporna town itself is nothing to shout about as it's key role is as transit point for visitors going out to Sipadan, Mabul, Kapalai, Mataking and others. The Semporna coastline however is lined with Bajau ethnic houses on stilts by the jetty and around the town's mosque.


and being a coastal town, there are boats everywhere...


Our 1st stop was the Mabul island where we will spend the night. From a fishing island, Mabul was transformed into a tourist's stop over when all resorts on Sipadan was closed in order to preserve the island in a pristine state. What you get is an intresting mixture. Instead of a typical resort setting, you live among the locals in a converted homestay hostel.




An interesting sight as we approached Mabul was the Seaventures Dive Resort which was converted from an old accomodation barge to a dive resort, just off the north shore of Mabul. From far it looked like an used oil rig.


Our accommodation for the night. Twin sharing room powered by an electric fan that can only be turned on after 6pm to conserve electricity.


But then again, you don't come to Mabul for it's world class facilities. You come for these beautiful sunsets that you will never get in KL..








The next day, I woke up at 5am and have a walk around the island,hoping to get a glismpe of sunrise..


Some shots from the shore during the early hours..




Our activities for the day was a snorkeling trip to the Ligitan Reefs at Kapalai. The island of Kapalai is situated just 15mins off Sipadan. Next to our snorkeling spot is the Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort, built on the shallow sandbanks of the Ligitan Reefs.


Oblivious to the tourists and vistors, local boys paddle their boat for their fun under the sun..


For the 2nd night, we switch over to Singamata Resort as it just a quick 10 minute boat ride away from the Semporna town. We had to be at Semporna by 7am the next day for our trip to Sipadan so this was the most suitable place for us to spend the night. As a proper resort, it has much better facilities compared to the homestay in Mabul.


Surrounded by the open seas and sitting on top a large reef formations, you can just walk down the wooden platform and dive into the sea. It also has a lot of photo ops...




The most beautiful sunset I ever saw..






A new day...


The main course for this trip...Sipadan island. As one of the world’s best top dive destinations, Sipadan needs no further introduction amongst divers. Due to conservation reasons, the Sipadan Marine Park authority imposed a restriction of 120 visitors per day to the island. The island is literally a turtle and shark haven. Green turtles, hawksbill, white tipped sharks, reef sharks and black tip sharks seemed to appear everywhere a diver chooses to look! More than 3,000 species of fish and hundreds of coral genera can be found there, making it a most diverse and beautiful diving site.

Approaching the island..




The main jetty..




taken with the Diana F lens..


sandy beach, clear blue sky, crystal clear waters...






paradise on earth..


We were taken out for 3 snorkeling / diving trips for the day. Besides the vast numbers and fishes and corals, there were A LOT of sea turtles!!




An underwater MTV for the trip...


All good things come to an end, time to go back to the real world..