The last time I sat in the 125cc CRG Kart 9, was 2 Feb 2008. I remember we had clutch problems that was eventually fixed during the long lull period until today!
The K1 Round 4 race promised to be an exciting one, mainly due to the return of some old faces, and some new ones too since a couple of regulars could not make it this time.

New to K1 was Raymond Phillips aka Ray Rossi - he took the opportunity to take over Bombe's seat for this round.
Some of our old friends that made a return to my-KART include Jason Loo, a Mini kaki and also 125cc kart owner who's a firm believer in practice, practice, practice - this fella is legendary..has been known to do >50 laps on the 125 in a single afternoon!...wah liao eh!.
The other old kaki, and most threatening one to all of us in K1, was Hafidz Fahro Rozi. I could hear a collective "groan" and "oh no, it's him!" when he turned up this morning hehehe...

Anyway, K1 leads Naza and Luen conducted the ballot after the registration and weigh in process, which resulted in my allocation to Group B, which as luck would have it, meant that I was in the same group and Jason and Hafidz! Oh no!....

Qualifying Round 1
This was a tough fight for me all the way to the chequered flag! Exhausting or what!. I had a fairly decent start and must have ended up at 3rd position, with Tarmizi and Naza up front and extending their lead. Didn't realise I had both Hafidz and Faiz Annuar on my tail, and it didn't take long for them to overtake me - which meant I had a great view of the dogfights that occured between the two.

This pack of 3 fought hard all the way, with Hafidz and Faiz closer to each other, and I acting like some kind of referee at the back. Then, I think a lap or 2 from the finish, Faiz must have gotten desperate and decided to "main belakang" Hafidz just before the last corner to the start/finish line, they ran wide, and, sensing a great opportunity, I ran towards the inside line to take both of them out.

Sadly, Hafidz was savvy enough to figure out my intention and zoomed ahead of me, leaving a gap between him and Faiz, whom by now lost momentum due to all that belakang play..so I slipped in and claimed my 4th position from him! heheh...nice race but it was really, really tiring for a 1st race!
Also, based on Mumu's advice on the brakes, I was very cautious and braking earlier than usual at the corners.

Qualifying Round 2
A relatively sedate round for me. And I mean relative...there were some dramas that must have occured just behind me during the first 2 laps, with the spinning of Iskander's kart causing damage to both his and Naza's.
Anyway, I didn't know how that happened until the following lap, when I saw one CRG lying on the corner of turn 1!

After the dust settled, the top 2 karts were way in front, Jason Loo was 3rd, and I was running 4th. I was running pretty close up Jason's rear (no, I'm not that way inclined!), and followed him up close and personal for about 5 laps.

I think Jason made a mistake turning into the long back straight, where I then took over 3rd position and maintained it for 2 laps to the chequered flag.

Final A
Yes! I made it to Final A, after coming in 4th and 3rd in the Qualifying Rounds. Unfortunately, Mumu scored more qualifying points, hence was in the same Finals and got to keep Kart 9, and leaving me to choose Kart #3, which was previously used my IskM7.

After flagging off K2 A Finals, I rushed back to the kart to undo all the 5 ballasts that were attached to the seat for Isk! Thanks to Isk for helping out, and no thanks to Mumu for lying on the hammock and singing "Widuri" while I was sweating away trying to get these weights off! But sweet revenge came later on track!

Starting 4th on the right, I had a pretty decent start again and ended up in the middle of the pack turning into Turn 1. I knew Tarmizi started behind me, and must have ended up just behind me once we settled into packs.
My memory of this race was mainly of being bumped like nobody's business from behind from these people - Tarmizi, Dassmond and a few times by Fazz! I think Tarmizi made a genuine error early in the race. However, I was overtaken by Fazz and Mumu, and I guess since Desmond was behind me, there was a pack of 4 of us fighting though the mid laps.
Dassmond cucuked me at some point in the race, just before the start/finish line, in his quest to overtake me, which he did....and he then went on to kacau Mumu & Fazz!

Later in the race, I was in a pack of 3 with Fazz & Mumu, and after some intense dog fighting, I took BOTH of them out hahaha! (Can't remember where...Fazz/Mumu, care to jog my memory?)
However, this event brought home to me that I have not actually raced side by side with Fazz....for YEARS! You see, in K2, he would usually be at least half a lap in front of me for most races, leaving me playing with the heavy boys at the back! Now that our weights are equalised through ballasts, I find myself dog fighting with the lighter folks like him...which was very interesting!

So, one thing you need to know about El Presidente, is that he is very determined! As we were heading into Turn 1 during the last lap, I didn't realise he was hot on my tail. I took a slightly wider line to turn into Turn 1, but as I turned right, there he was, trying to catch me from the inside! I was momentarily startled and I guess our experience and common sense saved us from major incident, but there was still a slight bump which couldn't have been good for Fazz. I think he went a lap down, but not sure if it was because of that incident.

Anyway, I ended up in 5th place overall, ahead of Fazz and Mumu, which was my sweet revenge on him for singing chinese songs while I was toiling on the kart!

Overall, excellent racing folks - I enjoyed every minute of it!