Life Served Sunny Side Up & Rainy Days Down: Shell Eco Marathon Asia 2011

Monday, July 11, 2011

Shell Eco Marathon Asia 2011

I signed up to be a volunteer at the Shell Eco Marathon 2011 Asian leg recently... It was hosted in Malaysia from 6-9th July 2011... We saw 13 countries participating and 94 vehicles in total. I have not had such a fun and tiring week in a long time... Had to wake up at 6am everyday just to make sure we were at the tracks by 7.30am.

I met a lot of new Shell colleagues from other countries and offices... :) Also got the chance to meet many students from around Asia... It impresses me so much to see them put so much efforts into building their vehicles... The trials and tribulations they have gone through in just this 4 days... Some teams managed to pass the scrutineering process quickly and get themselves on the track... other tried day after day to pass the technical inspections... but none of them every gave up... Even til the last day and hour we still saw students going through the inspections in hope of getting the all important safety and technical inspection stickers so that they can compete...

It was heartbreaking to see some teams unable to pass, even worse for teams who managed to pass but were too last to compete... There were even teams who went against all odds and succeeded... They were marked from the beginning as the team which had too many technical issues to even pass through the technical inspection but day by day they made the changes required and on the final day they got their approvals and got to the track... That was truly pure determination. I salute them for the efforts and them being a Malaysian team, I am even more proud of them.

Random photos from the 4 days....