8th - 11th October 2009
SIngapore EXPO HAll 5

SINGAPORE, October 2009
Organised by local motorsports event organiser MPT Motor Trading, Asia AutoSalon 2009 was held for the first time from 8 to 11 October 2009 in Singapore. With more than 70 exhibitors - which included automotive tuning manufacturers from eight countries in Asia Pacific - Asia AutoSalon 2009 attracted over 78,000 visitors over the four days.

Hi-Power Racing was invited to bring our S15 to do drift demos in the exhibition. We were both very excited and proud to represent Australia in this huge Asia Pacific event.

The Asia Autosalon 2009 included top tuners from Japan, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand etc. It was such a good experience to personally see factory cars from TOMEI, FUJITSUBO, TIEN, OS-Giken. Not forgetting the beautiful Asian race girls representing these companies!

7th of October 2009 
Day before the event 

Due to the absence of a drift track in Singapore, the organisers made up a small drift track in the middle of the car park of the Convention Hall. The track was oval in shape with 4 independent tyre barrier islands. The size of the track meant we had to race closely - there was no room for mistakes as going wide in the dirftcar would result in you finding your thousand dollar rims grating against one of the many concrete parking curbs.

On our first day, we were quickly shown our pit area and had our first practice runs on the track. We got to know our fellow drifters: Tsutomu Fujio from Japan (who is competing in the current D1-GP in Japan), Ah-Fai from Malaysia, and five other drifters from Singapore.

Our very own Jerome Kennedy practising and pushing the boundaries of the track, Jerome earned a reputation for himself as the wildest of the drivers as he sent his Nissan S15 flying at high speeds into and around corners.

8th of October 2009 
1st Day : Press Conference and VIPs visit

We were there with the VIPs (among them was a trade minister and the organiser of the exhibiton) and had a press conference (with TV and radio stations, ESPN Sports and newspaper reporters). We answered questions, had our photos taken, and did some runs for a few TV film crew. It was so exhilirating to see the Hi-Power Racing S15 appear on TV the very same night and in the newspapers the next day. 

LINK to Razor T.V.
http://www.razor.tv/site/servlet/segment/main/90/37380.html

Jerome KennedyDrifiting with Tsutomu Fujio
http://www.razor.tv/site/servlet/segment/main/90/37362.html

YOUTUBE organizers Official video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCBr7ylb48k&feature=related

9th - 11th of October 2009 
Gates Open ... fun fun fun!!!

We arrived at the convention hall, there was such a large number of people queueing up, waiting to get in. The crowd was enormous on all three days. 

Seven other drift drivers – both professional and amateur – joined in the drift demo to perform entertaining demonstrations for the crowds (so they don't have to watch drifters going sideways in smoke all the time!). 

All the drift cars did four sessions of drift demo daily. It was tedious and fun at the same time as we got to plan and customise our drift routes and sequences to woo the crowd. We upped the ante by performing a stunt where one of our crew members jumped into the S15 while it was doing a donut. Jerome then did a big burnout, after which he came out of the car waving the Australia and Singapore flags..the crowds went crazy!!

Other than posing with the cars, the race queens from APP sheltered professional D1GP drift driver Tsutomu Fujio with umbrellas. They even bravely risked their lives by being part of Fujio-san’s drift demonstration as he weaved his Mazda Efini FD3S RX-7 in multiple figure-of-eights and donuts around them.

Malaysian drift driver Ser Meng Huy (nicknamed Ah-Fai) wowed the crowds by driving his car in donuts with most of his body out of the car

Also deserving credit is the team of amateur drifters from local drift forum Drift Garage. Only pursuing drifting as a hobby, the four Singaporean members of Drift Garage put themselves up for comparison against the professionals just so they can reach out to more like-minded drifting fans to join them in their passion.

Much to the crowd's delight, many bumpers fell off as several crashes occurred over the four days. Thankfully that didn't happen to us! Though we did break a few parts from overworking the S15 (Jerome wasn't that gentle with it either!), and what was jawdropping was the speed at which the Singapore mechanics fixed the cars. When the RX7 broke the gearbox, the mechanics managed to fix it in THREE hours.  

Over the 3 days, we were swarmed by drifting fans and car enthusiats asking for photographs and autographs..we definately felt like superstars!

SHOW'S OVER

We really enjoyed ourselves performing with some of the best drifters in the world. It was such a great privilege to be part of Asia Autosalon. The experience was really rewarding to say the least.

We would like to thank: the organiser, MPT Trading, for an event well-run; ST-Powered for their pit crew and endless support; Fujio-san for his input and knowledge sharing; the local Singaporean drifters for a great time partying and letting us use their toolboxes!! haha..

Most of all, we would also like to thank our sponsor JUN and JIC for their endless support, technical expertise, and superior parts.

Below are more photos from the event for you guys to enjoy.

Jerome Kennedy with Hi-Power Racing's race queen.

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