The lap times in this season’s Malaysia Speed Festival (MSF) is expected to be faster. With most of the teams currently putting together some final touches and with some having done testing for the new season, the results can be said to be a big step forward in overall performance.
One of the contributing factor which has lifted the lap times performance is the use of HANKOOK tyres, the official tyres for 2017 MSF championship season. An established brand in global motorsports series, competitors of MSF who have tested the tyres gave high reviews about the performance of the HANKOOK tyres, and reporting with an improved lap times.
Three variants of HANKOOK tyres will be used in the MSF for specific categories with the Ventus V12 evo2 for Street Categories and Saga Cup, Ventus R.S3 (Z222) for Special Kei and Race Cars and Ventus TD (Z221) for Race Cars Open.
For HANKOOK, the MSF gives them the opportunity to engage with fans and inherently display the performance of their road tyres which are used in some of the race categories. “I started motorsport 22 years ago, as a mechanic. All my passion is there. For HANKOOK, we always want to contribute into a field where we can see the passion in motorsport. The MSF is the best grassroot motorsport event in Malaysia and I see the passion here,” said Hong Sik Jeon, Managing Director of HK Motorsport.
“We expect all the competitors in MSF to enjoy driving even more, and will improve themselves with our Hankook Ventus V12 Evo2, the Z222 RS3 UHP tyre, and the semi-slick Z221. And for the MSF competitors, my advice is to not limit yourself with what you have experienced so far, but you plan and try further and then the tyre will support you, while enjoying yourself,” added Hong Sik Jeon.
One of the early teams to conduct testing is Fast Lap Autoworks. During the final round of 2016 the team won the race convincingly in the Race Cars Open category and although they missed out on the championship title, they impress by posting the fastest lap time ever in the season with a time of 2:24.890. However this lap time will not stick for much longer once the new season begins as during the team’s recent test and with their main driver Faidzil Alang behind the wheel of their Honda Civic EG6 K24, now sporting additional aero aids, they smashed that time by recording a 2:20.939!
“If not for that turn 4 slight oversteer we could have gone a little bit faster,” enthused Faidzil. “For sure we made some changes to the car, but mostly just set-ups and for this season, some additional aero work. Both the latter we feel were very important as we have to match them with the HANKOOK tyres we’re running this year. To be honest I was quite surprise that we were able to post that lap time and it didn’t take that long either, and I could maintain that time or there abouts consistently for several laps which is pretty good,” said Faidzil.
Another competitor who tested the HANKOOK tyres was Ahmad Faizry who competes in the Saga Cup. This category along with the Street Categories will be running with the HANKOOK Ventus V12 evo2 tyres and has impressed Ahmad Faizry. “We did a total of 15 laps running with the HANKOOK tyres and I must say that the grip levels are higher than the previous tyres. Although we didn’t change anything to the car aside from the tyres, I managed to improve my lap times by about 4 seconds, which was impressive. We’ll be doing more testing again to gather more data and to understand the tyres even more while trying to get additional distance out of it,” Ahmad Faizry explained.
Not missing out on testing the tyres is the head of MSF Series, Adian Yein Khalid. A competitor himself in the series, Adian will be pitting his home built BMW E30 in the Street Category running with the obligatory HANKOOK Ventus V12 evo2 tyres. “The Hankook V12 evo2 is essentially a street tyre, and it’s very affordable yet with comparatively good grip levels. Although the soft sidewalls slow the steering response, teams that dial in their handling to suit the new tyres will definitely have an advantage in Round 1,” commented Adian.
With less than 2 weeks to go before the opening round of the 2017 MSF season a flurry of activities has begun among the teams even before the race begins, which indicates that the new season would be even more scintillating than before!