The rain undoubtedly made it difficult for the racers, and you can see them struggle trying to find grip particularly at the braking zones. Being a street race, all this happens just a few metres away from the spectators too, so while the TV screens make the drive look like its done at a leisurely pace, it is truly nothing like that.

From the three race categories, only two had proper races with the Super Sporting class (read: pro) only limited to a Qualifying session. Luckily this was done when it was still dry, and Tengku Djan topped the timesheets with a best time of 1:16.932. The man was the only man who recorded a sub 1m 17s; second-on-grid for the race is Mark Darwin just 0.251 seconds away. Syafiq Ali is third. The race for the pros on Sunday is scheduled to start at 1.45pm.

The Sporting class started the race proper following a delayed start. By the end of the 16 lap race, the reality of street racing – one with very limited track width – is not lost. The top three during qualifying topped the podium in the same order: Ken Foo won, followed by Brendon Lim, and Patrick Tam Wei Han.

Ken’s fastest time during the race was some seven seconds slower than during qualifying, the former clocked at 1:19.592. Not quite surprisingly, the pace car had to be called out just a few laps from the checkered flag. When normal racing resumed, things got a bit more interesting with a few peeks to overtake, yet no more accidents occurred, and indeed, no overtakes either.

Unfortunately, the sky opened up again just moments before the celebrities (Promotional class) went on the starting grid. Beatboxer Shawn Lee started first with Fattah Amin behind him on the grid followed by Shukri Yahya. It was almost a processional race, it seems, underlined the fact that actor Fatah Amin – who had lost the second position at the first corner to Shukri – had a faster best time by two-tenths (and faster top speed) compared to Shawn, yet simply couldn’t get past.

In the end, a daring move caused an incidence where Fatah ended up with a DNF (Did Not Finish), together with Janna Nick and Venice Min. Shawn, Shukri and Danny Koo took the top three podium spots.

We don’t know how the weather will be tomorrow, but what is certain is that the racing will be just as exciting, if not more. Too bad the next round will only come in November, so those in Northern Malaysia is best to visit the Vios Challenge at Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival tomorrow.