Keeping our children in the tracks and off the roads

In Malaysia, rempits or illegal racers can be seen thronging and blasting through major roads in towns and cities during the weekends – occasionally at the expense of their own life.

Spreading out of control, illegal racers or colloquially termed ‘rempit’ frequent our roads despite continuous efforts by the government to curb this indecent ballgame.

Advocating professional motorsports

The government has poured in millions of ringgits in its effort to curb our teenagers from illegal races.

Despite the huge spending, illegal racers are still tearing our roads, putting their life at stake, in the name of adrenaline rush.

To stop this from happening, large and small businesses and corporations step in.

Huge conglomerates such as Petronas and Sepang International Circuit (SIC) are two entities synonym in promoting and supporting Malaysian motorsport in effort to stop illegal racing in Malaysia.

Zulfahmi Khairuddin Moto3
Credit: zimbio.com

Petronas and SIC have contributed in providing platforms for Malaysian talents, in term of funds and much required technical supports before propelling them to go to greater lengths.

There are a few major names that have successfully made their way into international scene thanks to the endorsement of Petronas and SIC.

Zulfahmi Khairuddin for example, is now racing in Moto3 category while fellow Malaysian countryman, Hafizh Syahrin competes in Moto2, both as full season riders in the MotoGP World Championship.

A simple fact check shows that all Malaysian top racers have one thing in common – they all came from Malaysian national race, the Cub Prix.

Hafizh Syahrin, dubbed ‘King of Pocket Bikes’ during his early years went to race in Cub Prix as early as 13 years old.

Hafizh Syahrin
Credit: kfzoom.blogspot.com

21 years old now, he has around 8 years of professional racing experience under his belt, having won a number of international races including the CEV Repsol Championship in Spain and AMA Pro Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson race held in Indianapolis two years ago.

YY for Y-generation

Malaysian Cub Prix racing teams play a huge role in promoting motorsport and keeping our teenagers off the roads and no other teams have made it long enough except YY Pang Racing Team.

YY Pang has made its name years before the establishment of the Malaysian Cub Prix, and has gone to produce some top riders for Malaysia such as Chia Tuck Cheong and Chow Yan Kit in the 90s.

Pang Yok You  (YY Pang)

The team was founded by old timer and ex-racer, Pang Yok You who has been involved in local and international motorcycle scene since the last 45 years.

As an ex-racer himself, Pang started a humble beginning as a privateer in 1970, racing Vespa scooters in local tracks such as the Batu Tiga, Johor and Penang tracks.

He went on to participate in local races and was honoured to race alongside English GP racer, Ron Haslam in a MotoGP race held in Batu Tiga track in Shah Alam.

Pang climbed his way up having first awarded sponsorship by Hong Leong Yamaha and it was 15 years later in 1990 when he founded his illustrious racing team, the YY Pang.

Not only building his name in Malaysia, Pang is also a well-known motorsport figure in neighbouring countries such as the Philippine, Thailand, Indonesia as well as Vietnam.

He is indirectly involved in the development of Philippine and Vietnam motorsport scenes by providing technical support to local teams such as Qui Chia YY Pang and JCM YY Pang.

Pang says that there are also points where foreign teams put their riders under Pang’s supervision by undergoing training sessions in Malaysian tracks.

Cub Prix as a stepping stone

The Malaysian Cub Prix is a proven stepping stone for Malaysian riders. The national level championship was founded in 1994, aimed at grooming grassroots talents and providing Malaysia with pool of riders in the long run.

 According to Pang, long before the introduction of Cub Prix, Malaysia was lacking in proper race championships hence the lack of professional riders.

“There were no race teams in local races during those days, all of us compete as privateers though the costs were expensive,” he says.

As a veteran in Malaysia motorsport scene, Pang adds that during the 70s and 80s, majority of the riders were involved in illegal races. That is why when the Cup Prix was introduced, avid motorsport lovers welcome it with open arms.

The idea of Cub Prix also was to make it accessible by people of all walks of life, thus having races organised in street-turned-track circuits held in major cities all over Malaysia.

The championship saw the introduction of under-bone categories, for bikes ranging from 115cc to 130cc.

Though the cost is relatively high by Malaysian standard, Cub Prix has become a much anticipated event for local motorsport enthusiasts.

Pang says that though the championship fully utilises underbone motorcycles, the cost to modify standard street bikes to race-ready bikes is quite expensive.

“One bike costs us almost RM 30,000 to work it ground up. It involves total modification to turn a standard to a race-ready bike. In general, we spend more than one million every year to maintain all six bikes we have in the Cub Prix competition,” says Pang.

Corporate social responsibilities

The Malaysian Cub Prix championship came with multitude of responsibilities – to produce young talents while at the same time curbing rempit activities directly associated with it.

The teams too have their fair share of keeping Malaysian teenagers off from illegal races. Despite finding themselves in the middle of financial struggles, team owners such as Pang stand tough in the business – to fulfil their love for motorsport as well as to nurture Malaysian young talents.

Recently, the government has introduced a series of competitions which call for relatively lower cost compared to the Cub Prix.

These competitions, the KBS-MAM Kapcai Endurance for example, does not require much investment thus allowing privateers and small teams to participate.

KBS-MAM Kapcai Endurance 2015
Credit: gohedgostan.com

A race recently held in Melaka saw the participation of over 200 racers from all over Malaysia – that is equivalent of 200 teenagers parting ways with illegal racing.

“The organisation of competitions with cheaper entry fees has allowed more teams to participate. We can see that more and more of our riders get involved in races in proper tracks compared to the streets,” says Pang.

Finding their way up

Throughout the years, Pang has groomed hundreds of young racers who wish to enter motorsport domain.

A lot of them went on to become professional racers and are still actively involved in local and international motorsport arenas.

“I have had a lot of students and some of them now manage their own teams. Some even went the extra length by pursuing their career in the Europe,” says Pang.

According to Pang, parents play an important role in keeping their children in the track and off the road.

He says that parents have to acknowledge their children’s interest so that they will not deviate to the wrong paths.

Pang recalls having parents approached him, asking his to help train their children in motorcycle racing.

“These parents were afraid that their children will get involved in rempit activities. So they came to me and put their children under my supervision. Many of these kids have successfully made their way into Cub Prix, some with the YY Pang team and others went to join other teams,” he says.

 Commenting on the route to success, he says that parents who wish to promote motorsport to their children have to start from the bottom.

He says that the starting point is by having the children race using pocket bikes until the age of 12. At 13 years old, these children are allowed to race in the one-make race taking place alongside the regular Cub Prix races.

The one-make category is a good entry point because the sponsors provide everything including motorcycles and racing suits.

One-make race

It is from this pool of talents where racing teams pick their riders to represent their teams at more advance categories such as Wira, CP115 and CP130 at national and state level races.

Overcoming challenges

According to Pang, he has faced a lot of challenges throughout his active involvement in Malaysian motorsport.

In fact, he says that he struggles every year to ensure his team survive while giving way for his riders to win races.

Sponsorship is a large part for any motorsport team and Pang says that it is by winning races that he can earn better sponsorships in the long run.

Unlike in other developed countries, motorsport scene in Malaysia has not received very much support in term of sponsorship.

“In Malaysia, we only get sponsorship from companies directly associated with motorsport, such as Motul, Yamaha and Racing Boy. Meanwhile, in overseas, race teams enjoy sponsorship from non-related corporations such as Red Bull, Monster Energy as well as Movistar to name a few. Foreign teams are able to make a lot of profit from sponsorship thus allowing them to advance to higher stage,” says Pang.

After all, pushing the struggles aside, it is the love of the sport that enables him to stand the test of time. For Pang, it is watching his team races that he loves most and to stop illegal racing that he hope most.

Pang and his son, Gary