Like Monaco and Macau, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia now has its very own street circuit. A sensational track in the heart of the Capital winding its way round the streets and sights of the Golden Triangle, and, like any other street circuit, it poses unique challenges of unforgiving barriers, tight corners and unsettling bumps and undulations set to challenge the best of drivers (7-9 August).
Eurasia fielded four cars in the inaugural KL City Grand Prix for Singaporean Sean Hudspeth, Australian Aidan Read, Korean Kim Jeong Tae and Chinese driver William Lok, each of whom were taking on a street circuit for the first time in their short careers.
The weekend’s three races for the team would prove to be very tough, as all found the learning curve very steep, striving to find a balance between pace, confidence and drivability over the punishing bumps. The experienced Eurasia team doing their best to coach their drivers to a solution that suited each driver’s style and experience to get the most from their machines.
After limited running in practice, qualifying proved a lottery for all drivers with the two 15-minute sessions punctuated by no fewer than four red flag stoppages for cars that had found the barriers, making it impossible for the Eurasia drivers to find any rhythm. Hudspeth fairing best of the quartet managing a best grid spot of eighth, with Read next best rounding out the top ten.
The races were to prove equally trying. With two of the three finishing under the safety car as many cars found themselves in incidents with the barriers. To the credit of the Eurasia drivers, none were eliminated from the races by serious incidents and for the most part kept it clean with a measure of maturity beyond their experience.
Hudspeth faired best with three solid top ten spots barely putting a wheel wrong. Read, who had struggled to get to grips with the transition from regular Grand Prix style circuits to the challenges of the temporary track, gradually gained in confidence after a dose of bad fortune when he was stuck behind a stalled car on the grid to race well and finish in the points in Race 3, enjoying some good battles along the way.
Lok and Kim fell foul of a variety of niggling race incidents that are part and parcel of racing on street circuits with minor damage from light contact incurred as part of the street fight but managed to race to avoid any major incidents to bring the cars home in two of the three starts respectively.
Team Manager Mark Goddard, who has years of experience in developing young racing drivers, was alive to the difficulties faced by his teams drivers this weekend, “It was a new experience for all of our guys to come to a street circuit and adapt to the conditions and in the end they applied themselves well to the challenge and were improving with each lap of the meeting. Coping with the bumps, the heat and the proximity of the barriers, which will punish any small mistake, is not easy for any driver let alone those young and years short on experience and they all had a very steep learning curve to deal with. In the end, I am satisfied that we emerged from the weekend with relatively small damage and some points for our efforts and all a lot better for the experience gained.”
The team now move on to the regular Zhuhai track in China for the penultimate round of the Formula Masters China Series (18-20 September).
