As the sun shines brightly, overlooking the timing and positioning tower, everybody had their hands full for the race that was about to begin in a couple of hours. SuperGT Rd 3 in Sepang International Circuit (SIC) was poised to go into it’s 10th year in Malaysia as the series had expanded the legs outside of Japan and into Malaysia in 2002.
I didn’t even need to wander to the spectators parking to know how big the crowd is. Only by looking at the GT Club parking which was packed full at around 10am, one would already expect the circuit to be filled with spectators for the race.
The SuperGT race was due to start at 4pm local time and before that there’s the GT Asia and Toyota Vios Cup Support Races. People were already filling up the grandstands well before the start of the Support Races.
There were a lot of foreign media that attended the race, with mostly from the land of the rising sun, Japan. Almost everybody got out their laptops and began typing away and uploading photos to their websites and Facebook pages while others were waiting for the start of the race. Huge cannon-like telephoto lenses were the order of the day, some look more like bazookas complete with camo lense covers.
Everyone was put on high alert for the race; even the Firefighters and Rescue crew were ever ready in case of emergencies. Porsche had their Cayenne Hybird on stand-by for the rescue team to get them where they’re needed quickly and efficiently.
It was my bad for not being able to cover the Toyota Vios Cup and the GT Asia Support Races; I was busy uploading some pictures for this website at the Media Centre at that time. But fortunately I was in time to capture these ladies on the podium. What I can say is, women racers are hot!
Once the Support Races were over, there was a rumble followed by an orchestra of more rumbling. The sound of engines from the SuperGT race cars coming to life was extraordinary, more so when ignited in tandem with the others. As the cars lined up towards the pit exit, everybody got excited as the warm up laps were about to start. But like every other SuperGT rounds, there would be a pit and gridwalk afterwards which are an attraction in its own.
As the cars made their way around the track, everybody from photographers and spectators got excited. The sound of the GT cars running around SIC was deafening, but makes enthusiasts flutter with excitement.
As the cars made their way back to the pits, photographers and spectators scramble with their pit walkabout passes to get a glimpse of the teams in preparation for the race later that evening. And as per tradition, the teams and cars were not the only attraction during the pitwalk, GT Queens were about to make their appearance.
The GT Queens may be a distraction as some may want to have a look at the inner workings of a GT race team, but in SuperGT as with its earlier incarnation the Japanese Grand Touring Championship (JGTC), grid girls are part of the essence that is SuperGT.
Coming up next, the pit walk and the largest Car Parade at Sepang International Circuit!
You may also like these articles::