With DREAMS Magazine Vol.4 - Honda Malaysia

motor sports
The team poses for a nice group shot.
The winning teams of Honda sharing their joyous moment.
Going into a corner, Car No. 27’s brakes glow red-hot.
whole team when Car No. 26 crossed
the chequered flag just seconds behind
Car No. 27. In the Overall Championship
standing, this is also a record for HMRT
as Car No. 27 and Car No. 26 were in
second and third positions. This is a
record we intend to keep and to continue
to challenge ourselves for the Overall
Championship Title.
“It is the cohesive teamwork and
team spirit of all the HMRT members that
made this possible. Having said that, at
Honda, it’s never just about the victory.
It’s always about how far we rose to the
challenge. It is also Honda’s DNA and
Challenging Spirit in racing which
continues to challenge us to compete at
the highest level of motor sports, and
this includes MME,” Fujimoto said.
“Today, HMRT demonstrated Honda’s
Challenging Spirit to the hilt.”
Eddie Lew, one of Car No. 27’s
drivers, was also elated at winning Class
A for the fifth year in a row.
“I am very happy to win with Hiroki
Katoh as my partner. This year’s race has
been challenging but I believe the most
important factor in helping us win the race
was HMRT’s Racing Spirit, which was
very strong this year. Besides that, the
race car was in excellent condition
throughout the race,” Lew said.
Lew also congratulated the Car
No. 26 drivers for being very competitive
throughout the race, perhaps even more
so as the car was locally built at the
Melaka plant.
“I would like to thank Mugen engineers,
Yokohama and, of course, Honda
Malaysia for their continuous support.
And also HMRT – the team that made
this happen! I am happy to be given the
opportunity to race the car and win again
this year. I hope I can race for HMRT
again next year,” Lew said.
Car No. 27’s Japanese driver Hiroki
Katoh said winning the Class A title for
the fifth consecutive year was a personal
victory for him.
“I had two challenges for MME this
year: the first being that I raced with
the Civic Type R for the first time; the
second challenge is of course to keep
winning the Class A title. I am very happy
that we did it! The teamwork and the
diligence of the HMRT members was
what made this possible. This is their
victory,” Katoh said.
At MME 2006, HMRT experienced a
bittersweet victory when Car No. 27 took
home the Class A title while Car No. 26
met with an unforeseen accident that
caused major damages to the car. But
the HMRT team managed to repair the
car, which then went on to finish the race
and take eighth position in Class A.
In order to ensure the race ran
smoothly this year, and as part of the
training and development of local
talents, Honda Malaysia sent three
HMRT members to Japan for threeweeks
to learn from the MUGEN team
during the building of Car No. 27.
Irwan Ab. Hamid was one of the
team members who underwent training
in Japan.
“I joined a team of people who are
experts in building race cars. It was a
dream come true for me. They taught me
many new skills, and the true meaning
of teamwork and team spirit. In the
three weeks when we were there, we
worked together to build a complete
race car from just an empty frame. When
we encountered a problem, they taught
us to never give up and instead think of
creative ways to solve it,” Irwan said.
Such is the Honda philosophy,
which brings its people together as one
single force.
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