2016 CIK-FIA Academy Trophy Round 3 - Kristianstad, Sweden

After taking a flight to Copenhagen on Monday, and waiting impatiently to go to Kristianstad, after an hour drive with the beautiful Scandinavian scenery and weather, we arrived at the recently renovated Asum Ring on Thursday. 

The weather was a lot more pleasant than in Portimão, forecast at a constant 21°C with a breeze of wind for the whole weekend.

Once again collecting the Academy Exprit chassis and the Vortex DDJ engine, we managed to get it up and running early, allowing us to go to the hotel and rest early to prepare for Friday.

Going out on the track for the first time, I immediately noticed that the track was a lot grippier than I expected. I had really underestimated this track compared to Portimão, and with this tight and twisty track it didn't get any better in terms of physical demand, being the most difficult track I had faced so far.

Going out for the first time

Coming back to the parc-fermé after learning the track, I was about 1 second off the pace. After chatting with the other drivers, it turns out that many of them came here to practice before the race, due to the lack of practice sessions compared to Portugal, we had only three 15 minute sessions to get our driving and setup sorted out.

We tweaked a few things here and there on the kart, and I went back out for the second session. I improved by 6 tenths, which was decent, but still had more room for improvement to be competitive. We were making progress but we weren't fast enough to be able to fight in the front so we were hoping for another improvement for the 3rd session.

We watched the GoPro footage to check what I was doing wrong on the track because 9 tenths was really puzzling. Nothing seemed very wrong, no major mistakes. It was only until someone overtook me in the video, and we watched his line, trying to analyse what was wrong. The most mind-boggling part was that I was taking the same racing line as him yet he was pulling away on the exit of almost every corner. We tried a few other changes to try and acheive a better time, but I felt like my times were blocked by a magical barrier each lap in the 52.6 region. It didn't really make sense to me as I was pushing as hard as I could.

Pushing hard in attempt for a better lap time

I wasn't comfortable with me not improving that session as it meant that I wasted a session of practice, but it was too late to think backwards, I had to think about the time trial. 

With 8 minutes to clock a lap time, all I had to do was get one super lap, that sounded simple, right? At least to me it was. As the green flag was waved, the hunt began. Even with the new tyres, I just couldn't improve with my lap time. Even following a faster kart and slip streaming didn't help at all.

Aiming for the late apex

Minimizing steering wheel angle

I could only settle with 35th overall, which wasn't very surprising considering that I didn't improve my lap time since the 2nd practice session. 

Starting 24th and 23rd respectively for the heats A-B and B-C, I had to try and make up places, but with that pace disadvantage it was definitely going to be difficult.

Drivers briefing

 Waiting in pregrid

During heat A-B, I had decent start, and was up to 22nd by lap 2. Sadly, my spree stopped there and with my lack of grip still present, I dropped back into 23rd and finished in that position.

Fending off the 24th

I put all my effort once again for heat B-C, but it was still not enough to make a big difference to improve my position with my pace.

Giving it my all

With the chaos around me, I had to make use of these opportunities to rack up positions, and I managed to get past a few drivers and managed to finish in 19th.

 What could have been improved?

After looking at the qualifying heats overall results, I took a deep breath. This was the first time in my life that I had to go to second chance. This is the first time that I've had to mention this because never have I been into second chance before.

We reached the track very early on Sunday to prepare for the 2nd chance warm up. As this was the first time for me in the 2nd chance race, I was told that it would be a lot crazier than a normal race. Only the top 6 drivers from the 2nd chance race would proceed to join the qualifiers in the pre-final and final. The red lights went out, and that marked the start of the race. With 9 laps to fend them off, I was extremely underpaced through the corners compared to the others and all I could do then was to stay strong and defend with what I had. As each lap went by, everyone was bunching up closer and closer behind me waiting impatiently for me to crack under pressure. 

Fending them off in the early stage

Having managed to stay in the top six throughout the race, I felt the pressure of 5 other karts looking to overtake me to secure the last place to be in the final. I defended this position with everything I had, as we entered the 2nd sector in the last lap together with all the possible overtaking sections. Lee, the Korean boy right behind me in 7th, went for a daring wheel to wheel move even though I partially closed the door. He got the move done and with my slow exit, the rest took the opportunity to pass me and I dropped to 9th. I had to continue because anything could happen in these last 5 corners. As the 6th blocked through the snail turn, the 7th managed to get a better exit by maximizing the width of the track. As they went side by side, one made way and went into the grass. I was up to 8th. There was fierce fighting in the last few corners with four karts bumper to bumper and... I couldn't regain the last spot to qualify for the final. I was very disappointed...

Or was I?

Turns out that the 6th and 7th were penalized and that promoted me to 6th. We got the news 30 minutes before the prefinal. We had the kart all dismantled and we were cleaning and prepared to return the kart to the academy. With the kind help from 2 other mechanics Kaio and Takatsu, Renan, my dad and my mechanic Aurélien, they managed to get the kart ready just before the prefinal. A huge thank you to them. Here's a video of them getting the kart ready for the prefinal.

Sorry for the vertical recording haha

I was very glad to make it through the top 34 to at least complete the weekend. Though I wasn't able to fight in the front I still raced to my best. 

Warming up before of the prefinal

During the start, there was a gap in the interior and I went for it as it was safer than on the outside, gaining a place. Having to follow the train during the next couple of laps of chaos, I managed to take advantage of three karts getting a slow exit and climbed up to 30th. I had gained a few more places towards the end but a dislodged front bumper caused me a 10 seconds penalty added to my time and that caused me to drop a few places.

Fighting to stay ahead

A moment of visualisation before the final

Starting on the exterior row, I got squeezed to the outside in the chicane which caused me a few places. With 20 laps to go on this technical circuit, anything could happen. Everyone was blocking in the early stages of the race, so not much action was going on for me, till someone in front did a mistake and that made us bunch up into a 5 kart train.

Fighting my way back up from the back

With all the tension building up in this 5 kart train, each lap I was going back and forth, and I knew that if I managed to not crack under pressure it would bring me to the front of the train, and it did, so towards the end I was leading it.

After numerous laps of fighting, I managed to pull a gap, and I tried to catch up to the next group, but I was still lacking pace and they were a tad too quick. I finished the race in 24th.

Leading the 5 kart train

I completed my first year in the championship in 15th out of the 51 drivers from 39 countries. It's a good start for my first year at international level. As I go higher and higher, it will only get more difficult. I definitely won't stop here. I'm determined to fight my way to the top!

I'd like to thank the CIK-FIA for organising this amazing championship, every race was a stepping stone for me to learn in order to rise to the top. I'd also like to thank the marshalls for keeping us safe, the race directors and the stewards for making the races fair and square, my mechanic Aurélien, my mum and dad for supporting me all this way as well as my friends and relatives! Special thanks to Lee for informing me that I was in the final, Kaio, Renan and Takatsu for helping me get the kart ready for the prefinal as well! It wouldn't have been possible without you guys! :)

Overall Trophy Standings

Final group photo for the academy 2016

2016 CIK-FIA Academy Trophy Round 2: Portimão, Portugal

We touched down in Lisbon, Portugal on Wednesday afternoon, and drove 3 hours to Portimão. We collected the kart and the engine on Thursday afternoon and put it all back into one piece. The second round of the CIK-FIA Academy Trophy championship held in Portimão was going to be a mentally and physically tiring weekend, because the weather station forecast hot weather for the weekend. 

Free practice started on Friday morning, we had 4 sessions of 20 mins track time to learn and understand how the kart reacted to the setup as the track evolved. As compared to Essay, I wasn't used to that much grip on the track. I was improving progressively, but I was averaging only midfield lap times.

 Pushing hard through turn 12

At the end of the day, we decided to start a fresh, shifting the seat position, ride height and other related setup. It was quite a big work and thus, we worked till about 9:15pm before having our dinner.

On Saturday, the warm-up was pretty similar to the last practice session. We had only one chance left to change the setup for the time trial. 

The 8 minutes qualifying session started and surprisingly, out of the 23 drivers in my group, only 2 went out when the green flag was waved. Slipstream has a very big effect on the timing. Slipstream is a technique used by racing drivers by following the driver in front closely on straights to have less air resistance thus having better straight line speed. We had to depend on it to get a good lap time on this fast track, as that was what determined your position for each heat. I only had probably one or two laps to get a clean run and so it was very crucial to get the right timing before starting my flying lap.

Everyone waiting patiently for someone to crack under pressure in the pre-grid

Waiting patiently

The 2 drivers have already started their first lap and with 7 minutes left on the clock, still no action from the drivers in the pre-grid. Just as the 2 drivers set their lap time and with 6 minutes left, finally, someone cracked under pressure and went out. That caused a chain reaction, and everyone was out to set a lap time. 

Pushing as hard as I could

I tried to pace myself as well as I could to maximize the time left. With some luck, I managed to get two clean laps to clock a lap time of 58.886. I set the 4th fastest lap time, one and a half tenths off my group's best, and 8th overall.

 4th in group 2

 8th overall

I was very happy with the result, as that was actually 5 tenths faster than my free practice personal best lap time. 

Our hard work paid off for working late to change the kart setup and we managed to get it right just before the qualifying. I felt comfortable with the kart and was able to feel the track with the feedback from the kart.

After some discussions on the kart setup and what to expect for the race with my mechanic and coach, Aurelien, I was ready to go and race in the first heat. 

Getting geared up

Green flag. Starting on the 3rd row on the exterior, 6th on the grid, I managed to get a decent start and slot myself in the interior, protecting myself from any potential bumps to the outside. As we bunched up crossing the line to start lap 2, I placed myself in a good position, got better momentum out of the corner and overtook the 5th. Things calmed down during the next 3 laps till lap 5, where the 3rd and 4th got entangled. I saw a gap, I took the opportunity and overtook both of them and climbed up to 3rd.

 Going through turn 11 on the last lap in 3rd

We had an intense battle during the last 2 laps. I lost one position on the last lap due to slight understeer towards the end as the track evolved during the race. At the end, I finished 4th, two places up on my original position.

Weighing the kart

 Giving feedback to my mechanic after the 1st heat

 Heat A-B Results

As usual, the front runners were immediately called upon to change out their engines with other randomly selected academy drivers in the parc ferme as a measure to even out any engine performance advantage if there was any.

1st engine change

As for the 2nd heat, I was starting on the 3rd row on the inside, 5th on the grid, meaning I could worry less on the start. As we advanced to the start line on the formation lap out of the last corner, I managed to get a good start. I was up to 4th by turn 2. We were all bumper to bumper throughout the whole race, and I was going up and down in the battle for 3rd place. I had my final attempt down the inside for 3rd spot, but he got it back with the slipstream on the straight. I fought till the end but he got the upper hand.

Leading the battle for 3rd place

2nd engine change

 Heat B-C Results

 Heat Overall Results

The 10 lap prefinal awaited me on Sunday. We could already see that we were making progress compared to the first round, as I was going to start 5th in the prefinal, 6 places above my starting position in Essay, and also 6 points for the championship.

Starting on the 3rd row on the inside, 5th on the grid, I was confident to get a good result. During the formation lap, I was caught in an unfortunate incident and that caused my tie rod to bend which prevented me to restart the kart and that ended my race before it even started. I was very disappointed.


Starting 32nd for the 17 lap final, my goal was to do my best to overtake as many as I could to get as many points as possible for the championship.

Starting the hunt for championship points

Every lap, I was overtaking someone and going higher and higher in the standings, and I was pushing as hard as possible. By lap 10, I was 22nd. Going through turn 12, I felt someone clip my rear bumper and I lost a bit of rear end grip. As I continued driving, I knew something was wrong. I continued for another lap. I noticed a technical flag (mechanical breakdown) as I crossed the line to start lap 11. I thought I saw my number but I wasn't sure if it was mine. I went for another lap and it was confirmed that indeed it was my number, N°529. I slowed down to let people past to avoid any more damage to the kart and entered the pits. Upon returning to the parc fermé, I discovered that the right side of my rear bumper was damaged.

From my point of view, it was a good weekend, which ended badly. The race pace was good and I had the opportunity to have a shot at least for a podium. On the positive side, I'm happy to see my progress so far in this international championship. Seeing myself in the top 5 for the heats was a big accomplishment and a confidence boost for me. As far as I'm concerned, I'll try to use this weekend to learn from it to get better results in my future races. 

I'd like to thank the organizers, race officials, marshals, Aurélien, my friends, my parents and everyone that supported me throughout the weekend. I'll make sure to use the experience gained as a stepping stone to do even better in Sweden! 

2016 CIK-FIA Academy Trophy Round 1: Essay, France

We arrived at Circuit International d'Aunay on Wednesday late afternoon to draw lots for the engine and chassis allocation for the CIK-FIA Academy Trophy Round 1 at Essay in France. 

Drawing lots for the chassis and the engine

Let's assemble the kart!

We had to start assembling the kart immediately after returning to the tent and stopped work at about 9:15PM due to closure of paddock.  We continued with the assembly of the kart the next morning and I proceeded with the registration.

Registering along with getting the number plates

There were 3 testing sessions in the afternoon for the newly assembled kart. The 1^st session was dedicated for the running in of the brand new engine and chassis installation check.

Getting ready to go fire up the engine for the 1st testing session

During the 2^nd session, I noticed some anomaly with the engine at high rpms and lack of top speed.  I reported the case and it was checked by the Academy staff.  After an intensive check on all possible related components, nothing significant was found.  A data analysis specialist was informed and a check was performed using the downloaded data from the official supplied Dakton data logger. 

Puzzled with the lack of top end rpm and speed

Data analysis specialist looking at the data

The fault was confirmed and that my engine rpm was about 300 rpm down from an average maximum of 13700 rpm and about 4 – 6 km/h deficiency in top speed compared to the other drivers (All drivers were using the same fuel oil mixture ratio, jetting setting and transmission ratio during the testing sessions) and I was issued with a 2^nd engine.  I was very impressed with the way how the Academy staff handled the issue.  They did not release the kart after nothing significant was found physically on the engine and carburetor and went further with data analysis to verify.  Having said that, after all checks and verification and with about two and a half hours in between each session, not much time was left for engine changes and lunch before the 3^rd session.  However, I was still grateful that the fault was detected.

3^rd session went on uneventfully and I was happy with the 2^nd best engine rpm.  The data was also comparable to the other drivers.  However, more work had to be done on my lap time.

We had 4 sessions of 20 minutes free practice on Friday.  We tested many setups but it was difficult due to the rapid changing weather conditions with rain, strong wind and of course, sunshine.  

Achieving aerodynamic efficiency

The next day, I woke up, opened the curtains and it was drizzling.  With little experience with rain tyres, I knew I was getting put up for a big challenge. I still had to give it my all and I wasn’t going to just give up on the top spots like that just because of rain.

I had to nail a perfect lap in the 8 minutes of qualifying, without sliding off
the track.  As people say, everything is mostly easier said than done.  Keeping in mind on everything that my coach told me in order to squeeze every bit to improve my lap time.  I head out on a drying but slippery track for qualifying practice.

 Pushing to the limit before touching the slippery white line

 I was getting faster each lap, and on the last lap, I clocked a 58.2, 2 tenths off pole position, which is very little to in rainy conditions.  I was really delighted with the 4^th position in my group, and that put me 7^th overall. 

4th in qualifying practice series 2

The track dried up as the sun appeared in front of the gloomy clouds just before my first qualifying heat A–B.  Due to the unpredictable weather, we brought along the rain tyres just in case the rain wanted to give us a second visit.  There wasn’t a single rain drop and we went out for the 2 formation laps.  Starting 5^th, 3^rd row, in the interior for each heat, I knew I was in a good spot to do a good start.  The start lights were turned off and everyone was fighting to get the interior going into turn 1 and kept the interior line for the next hairpin.  I was cut off by a kart in turn 2 even though I stayed very close to the interior and to avoid a collision, I was forced to go wide and lost 4 places.  As we approached the start / finish line before end of lap 1, the race director was holding the “Slow” procedure sign.  Everyone had to go slowly and we had no idea why, till we advanced above the crest revealing a massive crash involving at least 7 karts or more. We had this procedure for 5 laps out of the 9 laps, meaning I only had 3 laps left to gain back 4 places, excluding lap 1. The green flag was waved and we were back to racing.  I managed to outbroke the kart in front of me and then  the 7^th place made a mistake and I took advantage of and move up another place to 7th.  But in a flash, those 3 laps were gone, and the chequered flag was presented.

Swapping engine in the parc ferme after the race with randomly selected drivers

We had to finish up the engine installation before taking a lunch break to rest ourselves, relax and prepare for the next qualifying heat A–C. 

I had a normal start for the heat A-C keeping my 5^th position.  I managed to gain a place to move up to 4^th place but I couldn’t pull a gap.  We fought for a few laps and letting the 6^th and 7^th to catch up.  The kart behind made an unexpected move on me and I was hung out to dry for the next left-hander, which cost me not 1, not 2, not 3, but 6 places! That was the last lap.  Though disappointed, I knew I could get those places back.  We were there in terms of pace, so I was still very confident of finishing in a good spot.  I had the night to think and analyse what I did wrong to not redo the same mistakes on Sunday.

Going through the snail section leading to the last corner

Sunday was what it was: Sun-day. A dry track was waiting for us to lay rubber for 17 laps for the pre-final.  Starting 11^th on row 6, I knew I had to be more cautious at the start to avoid any chaos or collisions.  After we rolled passed the last corner leading to the main straight, the start light off and that signified the race is on.  The interior row had a great start, and we went zooming past the entire row on the exterior lane and that brought me up to 5^th right away!  I was keeping up with the 4^th, but the 3 front-runners were pulling away each lap.  I had a battle for 4^th pretty much from the start till the end of the race, but he had the upper-hand, giving him the extra place.  But that meant I would be starting in the interior once again.

Queuing for weighing in the parc ferme

Weight check in the parc ferme

 A few drivers were randomly selected to exchange engine in the parc ferme immediately after every race. This had happened a few times for me during the weekend.  I had to change it since I was selected, making the championship fairer and that gave a chance to everyone.

OTK Staff inspecting the karts

Swapping engine in the parc ferme after pre-final with randomly selected drivers

The final was about to start: Everyone was sitting on the grid, and was getting prepped, calming their nerves, and getting ready to race. 

3^rd row, 5^th on the start / finish line waiting for the green flag

It was going to be a long one: 21 laps.  Green flag, we were off for another 2 formation laps.  Turning into last corner and approaching steadily towards the start / finish line, lights off and we were off for 21 laps final!  I kept my position going into turn 1, and managed to overtake and moved up one place to 4^th in turn 2. I managed to pull a gap from him, and started to close in onto 3^rd place.  Around lap 13, I was still narrowing the gap to the kart in front of me and I was pushing real hard to get close enough before I can make any attempt to overtake. 

Pushing hard, very hard

Suddenly, rain drops started dropping.  One by one, slowly at first, rapidly changed to the clouds firing machine guns of water down onto the track.  This only lasted 1 or 2 laps though, so it gave us a damp track for a while before getting back to race pace.  I realized that due to the rain, 3^rd place ran away from me.  I was aware that the pack behind me was closing onto me the same way I was trying to narrow down the gap to the kart in front of me in 3^rd.  I miscalculated the distance between me and him, thinking he wouldn’t dive into the interior but he did and I dropped a place to 5^th with the 6^th right behind me.  We stayed in position going into the last lap when the kart in front of me had a bad exit out of a hairpin and I was right behind him.  Trying to avoid a collision, I steered towards the exterior.  The kart behind me saw the gap and took the opportunity and went for it.  I had dropped out of the top 5 with a few corners to go.  Made a few attempts to overtake, but it was not easy when the doors were closed.  In the end, I had to settle with a respectable 6^th considering that this was my very first international race with 51 drivers representing 39 countries.  I could’ve done better but I have to be contented and I honestly had lots of fun and learnt lots of things from this Academy round 1.  This is not the end though, as round 2 at Portimao in Portugal is not too far away and I hope I can go there stronger and better.

This was the highlight of the weekend:

Group photo with the CIK-FIA staff and the Academy Trophy drivers

I would like to thank the CIK-FIA for organizing the Academy Trophy.  The OTK Academy staff for helping us with any problems we had. The marshals for doing an amazing job!  The photographers, videographers and the commentators for adding colours to the race.  Aurélien for being my coach and mechanic, great stuff from him and the Malevauts for giving me moral support during the race.  My supporters for cheering for me while watching the CIK-FIA TV live streaming.  SMSA for the admin support.  Also, not forgetting my parents for supporting me all this way.  See you at Portimão in June.

CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy Team Singapore

If you missed the live streaming, here is the replay of the CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy round 1 final race courtesy from WSK Promotion youtube video channel. Be sure to look out for n° 529, Ang Zi Yang Alvis from Singapore and enjoy watching.