Tengku Djan Ley: Spearheading Malaysia’s Challenge at Archilles Formula Drift Malaysia 2012
Excerpt of an interview with champion Malaysian drifter, Tengku Djan
16 December 2019
You are widely acknowledged as Malaysia’s Hero on wheels, what sort of responsibility does the ‘National Champion’ tag carry?
Well I wouldn’t exactly call it a responsibility. The thing is there is a lot of pressure from a lot of parties expecting you to win; the general public expects you to win. That added a lot of pressure from the time I started drifting till about 2010. And my performance in 2010 wasn’t great, so we went back to the drawing board, see what the issues were and how to improve myself. Everyone expects me to do well, if not win, from my previous credentials, but I’m coming to this season very fresh and with a new approach – which consists of a lot of mental things like the mental preparation before an event, to make sure I’m calm, relaxed and focus in what I want to achieve.
It has been 7 years since your first big win in 2005, how has the Malaysian drift scene changed since then?
The drifting scene in South East Asia is growing very huge. Thailand is very big now; Indonesia is growing in the last 2 years and has developed in leaps and bounds. Malaysia is kind of stagnated at this point, but then again there are parties who are trying to revive the sport. Getting new blood in is very important, at this point in time, since the first day it’s been more or less the same faces, year in year out. So the key is to develop this sport and get new faces in.
How does the Malaysian motorsport scene stand when compared to its regional counterparts?
I think we have been overtaken by Thailand, with all their local championships going on. The level of drifting there and the support they receive is crazy. Every competition we go to there has no less that 40 cars, it’s very intense and their drivers are really good. Indonesia has also grown and the level has gone up; the drivers now are a force to be reckoned with. I would say that everyone in the region is now quite on par with each other, it really depends on the track layout now. Everyone also stands a good chance to win now.