The Parade Lap – November 14th | Asia Motorsports Network
The Parade Lap takes you on a quick trip around Asia saving you the time of having to hunt for everything yourself!
TOP NEWS
It’s now clear that Motorsport and related events are returning across Asia and with borders beginning to reopen we could see a return of a somewhat normal 2022. We’ve seen the return of the Thailand Super Series, the Malaysian Championship Series and even the Manila Auto Salon. To those of us in the West this might not be seen as a big deal because we’ve had Motorsport running virtually without interruption during the pandemic, but that was not the case in most of Asia. With cars and motorcycles now back on the tracks and on display in the convention centers all signs point toward the rebuilding of Asia Motorsports in 2022.
The early series like the F3 Asian Championship and Asian Le Mans Series, who had to announce their schedules months ago, stuck with their all Middle East program which they ran successfully in 2021 at Yas Marina Circuit and the Dubai Autodrome, but the remaining series are showing a little more optimism with their scheduling. GT World Challenge Asia, which hasn’t run since 2019, released their 2022 calendar last month and is once again planning for a late season start in July in Japan with hopes of running at least 5 rounds in 4 different countries. If things continue to open up they are looking at an earlier kick off with a May round in Malaysia. No word yet on 2022 from Porsche Carrera Cup Asia who chose an ALL China schedule in 2021 that wraps up this weekend in Macau.
MOTORSPORT
The Malaysia Championship Series (formerly known as Malaysian Super Series) was back running this past week at Sepang International Circuit with their opening 2 rounds of 2021. The will be back at it again in mid December. It was fantastic to see Natasha Seatter back on the podium again after a 7 year absence! When we first launched AMN nearly a decade ago we were following her as she battled it out with fellow Malaysian’s Weiron Tan and Rahul Raj Mayer in the FG1000. Definitely some great memories for us! Congrats Natasha and hope to see another podium finish in December and many more for you in 2022!
This week is normally reserved for what is considered Asia premier racing event and while it’s definitely a scaled back version, racing returns November 19th – 21st to the streets of Macau with the 68th Macau Grand Prix. The schedule only has 6 races this year with the Motorcycle Grand Prix and WTCR remaining absent, but there will still be plenty of action from the SJM Formula 4 Macau Grand Prix; Sands China Macau GT Cup; Galaxy Entertainment Macau Guia Race; Melco Macau Touring Car Cup; MGM Greater Bay Area GT Cup; and Wynn Porsche Carrera Cup Challenge. LOTS of friends racing this weekend and looking forward to seeing many of them on the podium!
MOD CULTURE
Despite not being able to travel, the pandemic has afforded us countless hours of Youtube watching and it’s really allowed us to dive into the Mod Culture through out Asia. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video must be worth 1M! This weeks highlight is a great example of what we’re talking about…
If you still have doubts on how crazy the performance market is in Thailand check out CBMedia‘s latest video touring Sky Gallery in Bangkok. These guys specialize in one off Nissan Skyline complete restorations and the end result is truly a work of art.
Cars and Coffee (Virtual of course)
I was lucky enough to hit up a Cars and Coffee a couple of weeks ago while staying in Columbus, OH, but I didn’t have a car or any coffee so I just did a quick run through. Obviously lots of American Muscle with a few JDM and European models thrown in for good measure. Below are a couple of the better old school restorations.
Obviously, this section isn’t for me to post a couple of lame photo’s I took it’s to see what REAL Cars and Coffee look like throughout Asia. So grab a coffee and sit back and enjoy as Gofza Channel takes us through this past weekends meet up in Bangkok Thailand with some soothing tunes.
SEE YOU ALL ON THE NEXT LAP!
