6 August 2008 - A FEAR of noise did not deter young Hannan Hamzah from joining his peers from the Yellow House Society of Kuala Lumpur for an outing at City Karting in Shah Alam recently.

The SK Bandar Baru Sri Petaling Year Six pupil said he had a good time catching the 17 teams featuring in the charity go-kart event hosted by UNOS and Televas with the backing from the Selangor My-Kart Club and Team A1 Malaysia.

“I am not exactly a fan of motorsports because I am also afraid of the speed. But, I enjoyed watching the teams in action,” Hannan, 12, said.

The initiative collected RM10,000 for the Yellow House to support its special literacy programme jointly developed with the Federal Territory Dyslexia Association for children suffering from dyslexia to overcome learning obstacles and fulfil their potential.

Above photo - Safety first: Selangor My-Kart Club committee member Nazarudin Nordin (right) and Low (sitting in the kart) briefing the beginners before the race.

UNOS regional sales vice-president Tan Ee Ern, Televas chief executive officer Mark Timms, MyKart president Fazlur Rahman and Yellow House president Law Gin Kye were also present.

“We chose Yellow House as the beneficiary because of their experience and passion working with children.

“We want to help the children in their journey in life.

It was also a chance for us to show them that they could be champions,” Tan said.

For the main event, each team with three drivers featured in the race around the 1.16km track.

An experienced driver from the My-Kart led each team.

From the qualifying round, the top qualifiers had to start in reverse order from the back of the grid.

Below photo - Charity drive: The initiative managed to raise RM10,000 for the Yellow House.

 
In the race, each team also had to execute two transitions in the 45-minute race.

Team Televas Fisher comprising Aaron Tay, Bryan Wong and Wesley Too chalked up 32 laps to finish ahead of the pack.

“We won because we had drivers of equal strength in the team. It was quite smooth sailing to steer the wheels to victory at the end of the race because there was not much traffic,” Tay said.

Team A1 of Ramsey Radzmi, Daryl Goh and Michael Paz Foster completed 32 laps with a 01.60s deficit behind the winners.

The trio of Edwyn Low, Ehfan Shah and Natalie Kniese from Hitz FM1 registered 31 laps for the third spot.

Following the race, the children were also given the opportunity to go for a spin.

Law applauded the organisers for inviting them to be part of the sporting event.

“We realised that sport has a special touch in promoting important values.

“But, they (the organisers) are motivated by a spirit even greater in showing their compassion for the underprivileged,” he said.