EARLY morning rain had fallen on the track for Round Four of the Japan Super GT series held in Sepang last weekend.
And it did little to cool temperatures in the Malaysian leg well known for its heat.
But conditions didn't stop a Singaporean from taking part for the first time in this prestigious superfast car race series from Japan.
Melvin Choo, who was also the first Singaporean to race in the FIA World Touring Car Championships (WTCC) last year, partnered veteran endurance race driver Martin Short and raced in a Mosler MT900GT3.
The American supercar's maiden foray into Asia was inevitably one of the highlights of the race.
The speed monster, which measures 1.995m wide and 4.9m in length, was decorated with striking red, white and silver stickers.
Even though it started the race in eighth position, the Mosler MT900GT3 took less than three laps to move up to second place.
Competing under the GT300 category, the amazing speed of the Mosler never failed to wow the audience each time it zoomed past them.
The Mosler MT900GT3 captures the attention at Sepang International Circuit.
There was no doubt that with the driving skills of Choo, who was racing under the banner of Thunder Asia Mosler Racing Team, he would have easily made it to the podium.
Speed
The speed of the Mosler more than compensated for any other shortcomings the team might have against the other bigger and more experienced Super GT drivers.
Unfortunately, a tiny technical glitch took away the team's chance of a podium finish.
A relay circuit fuse got burnt out and caused the power-steering to fail. The team was just onto its fifth lap on the Sepang International Circuit when the power- steering gave way.
Said Choo, 38: "It was tiring and frustrating. I had to use my full bodyweight to try to turn the steering wheel.
"Imagine doing that 15 times in a lap as there are 15 corners in the circuit. We were driving round the corners at over 200kmh without power-steering. It's like weight-lifting or just imagine doing push-ups inside a sauna."
By the time Choo took over the wheel from Short, the team was down to fifth position in the race.
And to Choo's horror, he was unable to start the engine as the burnt fuse had caused the fuel pump to fail too.
The downpour in the morning helped to cool the engines of the super cars at the Super GT before the race took place in the afternoon.
As fuel could not be pumped into the engine, the car could not start after the driver's change.
The engineers spent close to 15 minutes fixing the problem. That caused Choo to be four-and-a-half laps behind the leading drivers. The team eventually finished in 13th position out of 19 drivers.
A disappointed Choo told The New Paper after the race: "If not for the pit-stop delay, I was confident of maintaining fifth position, even without power-steering."
Said Short, 50, who had raced in FIA GT series, Le Mans 24 hours and was last year's Dutch Supercar Challenge champion and Dutch Supercar Mosler Challenge champion: "It was unbelievably hot in Sepang, probably the toughest conditions I've ever raced in."
During the close to two-hour race, one driver could not take the heat and collapsed outside his car.
Even though the driver did not cross the finish line, he was awarded 12th position in the race.
Fitness
Said Choo: "Fitness is very important. It was hard for me to drive without power-steering but part of the challenge was to cross the finish line.
"I am very proud of everybody. We had diversity which was expected. We tried to do our best to fix the problem.
"And I think for our first try in a car that has never raced in Asia before and in a series that we have never raced in before, I'm very proud of the team. A top-three finish on the podium was very much within our reach."
Choo also revealed that the team is planning to do a full season next year.
