MALAYSIAN FORMULA ONE DRIVER SET TO TAKE ON PIONEER

Ex-Formula One driver Alex Yoong will be trading in his fast car for the bike and his own engine, when he takes on The Pioneer Mountain Bike Stage Race through the South Island’s Southern Alps next week.

Yoong is in New Zealand to compete in the Pioneer MTB race with his good friend Anton Morgan, who is from Auckland. Morgan suggested the race to Yoong last year, and it was the perfect excuse to travel to the South Island and see his Kiwi mates.

“I have been to the North Island before, but never the South Island. My first time in New Zealand was for the New Zealand A1 Grand Prix at Taupo Race Track in 2007. When Anton told me the race was in the South Island, I said yes.”

In 2001, Yoong became the first Malaysian to race in Formula One with Minardi in the Italian Grand Prix. He started his career in saloon cars before racing in single-seater cars where he went on to win the Malaysian Championship in 1995. Yoong competed in a number of other categories such as Formula Renault, Formula Three, Formula 3000 and Formula Nippon, as well as CART World Series, Porsche Carrera Cup, the A1 Grand Prix series between 2005 and 2008, Le Mans 24 Hour race and even V8 Supercars.

The 40-year old is still well and truly involved in the racing scene. He still does some racing for Audi China, with the Audi TEDA Racing Team. It’s a 10-round series which starts in May in Malaysia and moves onto Japan, Korea and Shanghai, before finishing up in Zhejiang. He is also a pundit on Formula One for Fox Sports Asia.

The former F1 driver admits his training for Pioneer took a little longer than he expected to get going, but he is confident he has done the work to enjoy what is a tough challenge.

“My season ended late last year and admittedly I kind of signed up for Pioneer without looking at quite how much we were going to do over the seven days. So, I’ve given myself a lot to do, as I only started training in the first week of December. I know I am going to suffer a wee bit on the ride.”

Yoong and Morgan are entered in for the 7-day Epic Masters (40+ category). He said he doesn’t have massive expectations for the race, which consists of 545km of riding and 15,008m of climbing.

“I have never done anything like the Pioneer before, so my expectations aren’t great to be honest. My main thing when I decided to enter was to hang with my mate Anton and see a bit of the South Island, which I’m sure will happen nicely.”

Yoong lives in Kuala Lumpur, so he won’t have any of his family supporting him at Pioneer, but the friends he has in New Zealand will be there to cheer him and Anton on.

“I’m giving myself some time to get acclimatised properly, to the conditions and the bike. I have also managed to get hold of a 29 inch bike, at home I am used to riding a 26 but I have been told the 29 is ideal for this type of mountain bike stage race.”