The Star Malaysia - Star2

Living a dream come true

Vios Challenge racer Kenneth Koh tells how racing got into his blood. He will be gunning his car again at the challenge to be held in conjunctio­n with the Toyota GAZOO Racing racing festival in MAEPS, Serdang on Nov 25 and 26.

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ANYONE who has been involved in the local rally scene over the last two decades will be familiar with a figure who would diligently attend every event, usually with his wife and four children in tow.

He was neither an official, a competitor nor mechanic but a true blue rally fan who took spectating very seriously.

“Etched in my earliest memories was when my father used to bring me to the oil palm estates as he watched his favourite sport. The smell of the exhaust fumes, the dust and the sounds of rally cars were probably what got me hooked on the sport,” said Kenneth Koh who took up the sport officially at the age of 17, some nine years ago.

His father was of course Koh Hong Nam who was better known in the fraternity as Ah Lam.

Ah Lam was a racer in his younger days but with a growing family to feed, his passion was then limited to spectating and helping other young drivers develop an interest. On rally weekends, he would drive his entire family to every event just to spectate and the bug was finally passed on to his son. Kenneth knew that it was inevitable that he would progress from spectating and wiping down rally cars for friends to actually driving a rally car one day.

“I managed to scrape together enough money to participat­e in my first event. It was a carpark rally that I participat­ed in after my SPM in a Proton Putra 4WD. It was the most awesome experience for me at that time and managed to finish fifth overall. I knew then that motor racing was definitely for me,” said the middle child in a family of girls.

With enough funds borrowed from his school teacher mother, and a car borrowed through his father who was a used car dealer, Kenneth managed to get into his first dirt rally. In his first year, he secured the Junior Champion, 2WD Champion and class championsh­ips. His performanc­e was impressive enough for Proton to notice him and offered him a drive the following year as a junior on the team that ran Karamjit Singh’s campaign.

This eventually led to a drive with the team in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championsh­ip (APRC) where he got to race in New Zealand, Australia, Japan and China.

“This was a real eye-opening experience for me as the road conditions here were unlike anything I had seen before. In Malaysia our roads are very technical as it is bumpy, narrow and tricky. There, you practicall­y have to drive 100% all the time as the roads are smooth and fast,” he said.

“The experience taught me a lot about car control and driving with a lot of focus but unfortunat­ely, the team stopped their involvemen­t in the APRC and we had to focus on the local championsh­ip. However, I take it as a learning experience as it helped me in my driving and I won the local 2WD class for five consecutiv­e years.”

With his rallying achievemen­ts under his belt, it was inevitable that the call of racing on race tracks became stronger and he wanted to expand his horizons to asphalt races.

“The Vios Challenge came about at a very opportune time in my life. I had considered circuit racing but have always been turned off by the cost and how much seat time was needed to advance in this discipline.

“Thankfully, I heard about the Vios Challenge and how it would be run on street circuits and this perked my interest.

“It was fortunate that Panglima City, a Toyota dealer in my hometown of Klang was keen to enter a car and I managed to arrange for a drive with the team.

The mutual interest led to Kenneth’s debut on the circuit in the Vios Challenge in Batu Kawan last August and he rewarded the team with podium finishes in both races, placing him in third position in the points standings.

“It was an awesome experience to have made my debut in the Vios Challenge. It would have been more difficult if it were any other racing programme in Sepang or other establishe­d tracks as other drivers could have built an advantage from track knowledge but because the Vios Challenge is run on a purpose-built track, it was a level playing field for everyone so skill and car control played a bigger role than familiarit­y. The car was also new to everyone so nobody had any advantage.

“I think the idea behind the Vios Challenge has worked perfectly. For a company like Panglima City to get involved in any race programme would have cost them so much more and the amount of exposure could be minimal if they did not win outright. But with the Vios Challenge, you can see so many newcomers to the sport and they are not bleeding from the cost. It is really what the country needed to create interest among racers and spectators,” he said.

How does Ah Lam influence Kenneth in his driving?

“I try not to disappoint him. He is not a very expressive person and he lets me learn from my mistakes.

“But what he says, I always take it to heart because he is my Dad. Usually, all he tells me at the end of a race is maybe I can brake a bit later in this corner or you can go faster there. Other than that, he doesn’t judge me or try to teach me.

“But to me, the fact that he comes and watches me already motivates me to do well. It is always at the back of my mind that my dad is observing me and I must not let him down.

“He gives me this inspiratio­n and while he doesn’t praise me when I do well, his handshake at the end of the race speaks mountains for me,” Kenneth said.

 ??  ?? Kenneth (right) with his father Hong Nam and the Vios race car.
Kenneth (right) with his father Hong Nam and the Vios race car.
 ??  ?? Kenneth in his childhood days with his father, Hong Nam.
Kenneth in his childhood days with his father, Hong Nam.

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