KL, Malaysia Day 4

Sepang GT
Woke up promptly at 7, got dressed with meters of sunscreen and met the gang in the lobby. Us, Henry, Lucia, Old Man Wang, & Ric all piled in the van and headed off. We drove through a rather run down neighborhood filled with extremely derilect flats and houses that were only slightly better. Oddly, we noted pretty decent cars in the driveways; mercedes and BMWs. Henry explained that people in Asia will often prefer a blinged up car over suitable housing. We parked up outside an extremely nondescript little building with plastic tables and chairs. Christine & Ric's mum met us there and we had a traditional Malaysian breakfast as in the distance we heard the Call to Prayer from the local mosque. The first course was roti talor, thin pancake with egg that you dip in curry sauce and sweet & hot fish dip. It was incredible. The second course was also roti (pancake) but with fried banana instead of egg. With drinks, the whole meal came to 40 ringgit (£6/$11). Mind, that’s for 8 of us.
We said our goodbyes to Christine & Mrs Wang as they headed off to some pre-wedding celebrations, and the rest of us headed to the main reason we are all here this week, the 2007 Super GT International Series Malaysia. (I'm being facetious). It is the biggest autorace outside of Japan. Ric entered through the press entrance and we were able to park up and walk along the back of the pits, and, press passes in place around our necks, we entered the main press center. It was an enormous room with rows of desks facing large monitors. On the entire right side of the room were enormous tinted windows that overlooked the starting line and the pits below, where the cars are serviced midrace.
As we were "Media persons", in that room only because of Ric's connections in the racing circuit, we had to suppress the married couple act. We did our best, but still bickered constantly whilst referring to each other as "dear" and "sweetheart".
During a quick sojourn to the ladies Kelly beheld her first "racing queen". They are models hired by each racing team to promote the team by being unbelievably enchanting and adorable. She was applying her lipgloss in the mirror. With a waist that's circumference matched her age (both about 17) she stood their with her itty, bitty mini skirt and 4 inch high white leather go go boots. When Kelly said Hi, she repeated it back in a little girl, cartoony, sing song voice which was far too impossible to be faked. She was cute as a button.
We enjoyed the wonderful air conditioning till it was time for the raceway tour at 11. We ventured into the oppressive 110 degrees outside and headed to the buses. This is quite a treat reserved only for media. Only the race photographers and Kelly (journalist) were priviliged enough to experience this. We were sent to the "kids" bus and soon discovered why, as about 20 japanese school children over on exchange all loaded on. They were laughing and their enthusiasm was infectious. Soon the bus started up and entered the track. We did the full 3 mile ride twice as the racing cars competing that day whizzed by us. It was incredible.
A short rest back in the comforting coolness of the media room was followed by the pitwalk at 1.
They laid out some Roti (oiled bread, kind of like na'an) for all the media, wrapped in newspaper with little plastic baggies of currie, and we wolfed that down pretty early in the races. At 1pm we went down for the pit walk. All the cars are out with the relevant drivers, although the hundreds of media personel and the freelancers that paid to be there were interesting in only one thing; the beautiful, leggy Japanese models that every team possesses. You can tell the more successful teams by the beauty of their team queens. They just get prettier, taller, and bustier as you head up the line. We had about an hour walking up and down the pit taking pics of the cars, of the girls, and of Kelly with the girls. Then, one of the races began so we all left the lane. We took sanctuary in the Press Centre for a short while till it was coming on time to head down for the big race; the Super GT. We were the first down the Pit Entrance hallway and were allowed through the gate, but we were only there for a few minutes till the technicians pushed us back behind the gate. It was then we started to hear the fanfare, the crowd, and we saw the girls marching up the track holding banners indicating their teams. There we were, watching this through the exit of a hallway when we should have been out there. Ric became furious, called one of the event organizers and forced his way in. They weren't going to argue with him, but we had to stay put. Then another technician advised us we were in the wrong place entirely! We were to go further up the track, but of course being at the front of the tunnel meant we ended up in the back of the que of photographers heading to the starting line. Kelly ran up to the press centre to get Christian's long lens, and we were able to walk up and down the starting line examining the cars and meeting those involved until the race started. It is an endurance race, which took about 3 hours. We visited different parts of the track to catch good photos, however, both of us just didnt have the stamina in the unforgiving sun and watched the lion's share from the press centre. Number 24 WoodOne Advan Clarion Z driven by Joao Paulo Lima De Oliviera and Seiji Ara won the race in the end.
We got to enter the press interview room where the drivers in first and the drivers in 2nd (due to the length of the race, there were 2 drivers for each car) were interviewed. Except for Joao Paulo, the other drivers all spoke Japanese.