Press Release
This past weekend, Syazwan Mohd Noor added to his growing reputation as one of the most promising karters in Malaysia as well as his status of the “iron man” of Malaysian karting by competing in both senior and junior categories in the KKS Malaysian Karting Championships.
The junior category was disappointing with an engine that got progressively slower during the day. Syazwan fought hard during the heats and pre-final to get good finishing places but retired from the final due to serious engine problems.
The seniors was a different story. In heat 1, Syazwan lost places to begin with after a cautious start but quickly fought up to 4th place and although a spin when trying to gain another place dropped him to 7th. In heat 2 the kart failed on the warming up lap with a loose ignition wire so Syazwan started the pre-final at the back of the grid. He quickly moved up to 3rd place and was gaining on the drivers in front but was too far back and had to settle for 3rd. In the final, Syazwan passed 2010 SL Cup champion Tan Ron Wei on the 5th lap to take 2nd place then caught and passed multiple Rotax champion Mikko Nassi for the lead. Despite a race long chase by both Ron and Mikko, Syazwan pulled out a comfortable lead, setting a number of fastest laps on the way, and took the flag with a 2 second advantage.
With this win, Syazwan becomes the only driver this year to win in all 3 of the karting championships in Malaysia, having already notched up victories in the SL Cup and Rotax Max Challenge.
After the race, Syazwan said “It was really good fun. The kart was fast and I was able to overtake Ron and Mikko fairly easily. Once I was ahead, I knew that I just needed to relax and keep up a good pace to pull away from them. Knowing I had 2 senior champions chasing me just added to my determination to stay ahead. I think my dad and John were probably more nervous than I was!”
About Syazwan:
Syazwan is 14 years old and only returned to karting this year after a 4 year break, during which he raced in Formula Future powerboats (the powerboat equivalent to gokart) . His powerboat career was stellar – wining the national championship multiple times and scoring a hattrick at world level, winning gold medals with the Malaysian team in 2005, 2006 and 2007 – the latter 2 years as individual World Champion – at world championships held in Europe.
He has been able to make a comeback into gokarting because of the sponsorship by PSM Academy (M) Bhd, Terengganu this year. In addition he is very much motivated by the support from Yayasan DiRaja Sultan Mizan (YDSM) to continue his karting and pursue a motor racing career. His progress is closely being monitored by YDSM.
He drives for the Plus GP Racing team under the guidance of multiple Malaysian champion driver John King who said “Syazwan has had a great 1st year in Junior karting. As you’d expect he’s had a few ups and downs but overall his speed and general abilities have shone through. He’s got everything you need to be successful in karting and beyond, He’s been fast pretty much all year but is also developing really good racecraft. He’s got a great attitude and works very hard – both at the track and at school. He’s also super fit – in 3 meetings this year he’s doubled up in categories so has often had to do races back to back and he’s seldom even looked tired. Next year he could be very difficult to beat…”