Free Tour of A1 Team Pit Garage

Written by Rishi Ganesh
Editted and blogged by Mei Ping
22 November 2008, Sepang

Free Tour of A1 Team Pit Garage

The A1 Grand Prix World Cup Motorsports event was held from 21st to 23rd November 2008 at our very own Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia. The IEM G&S-YES committees have joing organized with Jobstreet.com Bhd team for a free tour to A1 GP pit garage which was held on the 22nd November 2008. Of course, we would not want to miss this once in a blue moon chance!

The sun is up, bright and shining, with the perfect weather, we, from the IEM G&S -YES were all excited about the A1GP event. At about 1.45pm, we gathered ourselves at the entrance gate at about 1.45pm and were welcomed by two Jobstreet crews. Later on, we proceed to the grandstand seatings, where we have a clearer view of the starting point of the circuit. Students from Segi University College also joined us along in this event after the same tour. By then, it was the beginning of the qualifying session for feature race. Approximately 50 graduate engineerse and engineering students participated in this event.

A very exciting event indeed where we can experience it live! And, yes, it is a very different experience to see a race live from where the event was taken place compare to watching them on the TV,even though TV might be broadcasting them live. For those car lovers, you will understand what was meant of experiencing them live in terms of the actual size of the car, the speed, and not forgetting the roaming of the powerful engines. The qualifying session ended at about 3.15pm. Fairuz Fauzy, our A1 Team Malaysia’s driver came 4th for the qualifying session, an excellent standing which made all of us proud.

Next, we were surprised with another race consists of various (year 80’s produced) domestic cars with modified turbo engines, specially designed for race. Well, it really surprised us as it was not listed on the schedule, but it was an exciting race that made us even more excited.

As soon as the race ended at about 4.00pm, we were later invited to the A1 Malaysia Team Pit Garage. It was a chance of a lifetime to see the A1 engine (mind you...it's Ferrari powered) and the garage where all the repair and maintenance of equipments were taken place. We were also given the chance to ask questions and explanations from the A1 team members on some technical things. Our doubts were all cleared by the A1 team members.

Before leaving the pit garage, we managed to meet up in person with our Malaysian drivers – Fairuz Fauzy and Aaron Lim to get their signatures and autographs. We also wished them good luck for the sprint and feature race which was scheduled the next day.
The whole event ended at about 5.30pm that day. This trip is really educational to us. Thank you so much Jobstreet, for giving us the opportunity to have the real live experience on the A1 race and pit garage tour.