Abidin (third left) receiving a memento from Faez while members of the organising committee look on.
KOTA KINABALU: City Hall (DBKK) has agreed to give its full cooperation to ensure the smooth running of the upcoming 25th Anniversary International Borneo Safari Off-Road Challenge’s flag-off.
DBKK Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir has assured the organiser, Sabah Four Wheel Drive Association (SFWDA) that he would render every assistance needed to make sure the flag-off at the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) headquarters along Jalan Gaya on Oct 25, which falls on Sunday, would be smooth.
Abidin gave the assurance when met with SFWDA president Faez Nordin during a courtesy call by the latter at his office recently.
He said with the grand and elaborate flag-off ceremony with more than 300 vehicles, coupled with thousands of participants, the situation would be made even more chaotic with the closure of Jalan Gaya for the weekly Gaya Street Fair.
The flag-off in front of STB office will surely be jammed up like what had happened in the last few years with participants, spectators, tourists and the large number of participating four wheel drives.
Abidin expressed hope that the organisers and DBKK enforcement officers would work closely during that time so that cars would be parked according to the designated areas allocated to SFWDA to avoid total congestion along Jalan Gaya.
Faez led his committee members to call on the Mayor to request for his blessings and assistance pertaining to the flag-off, where he briefed the latter about the large number of participating vehicles that would throng Jalan Gaya for the event during that day.
“We are very grateful to the Mayor’s willingness and giving his cooperation towards our request and wish to thank him for his fullest support,” he said.
“I wish to call on and remind all drivers to abide with their ground crew and DBKK officials manning the road along Jalan Gaya on how best to park their vehicles so that they will not obstruct the flow of traffic during the day.”
“I also want to remind them to come in early to avoid congestion, where the designated parking areas are along the STB office right up to Jesselton Point Roundabout as well as the parking lots at Tong Hing Supermarket and HSBC Bank.”
Meanwhile, Faez said due to the large number of participating vehicles expected to be in the convoy, they have decided to break the convoy into two groups to be led by two separate scout teams.
Even though there will be two groups, the convoy will still be following the same track right from the flag-off and then to the initial two Special Stages (SS) at Kampung Duvanson in Penampang.
“I really hope and call upon all participants to work as a team with high team spirit of camaraderie throughout the entire route, especially during the extreme hardcore sectors to avoid any break aways from their convoy as they may lose their ways.
“This is what I am appealing to all, especially the officials to show their team spirit to ensure all participants, especially the foreign participants and journalists get the taste of Sabah’s true colour of hospitality inside Sabah’s pristine rainforest.”
After the first two SS in Penampang, the convoy in two groups (Groups A and B) will then proceed to Kampung Sungi and Kampung Tikolot in Tambunan for their first campsites.
The two groups will proceed simultaneously the following morning where Group A will make their second campsite at Kampung Dalit while Group B will proceed earlier to Kampung Kolorok, near Rundum in the interior of Tenom District.
The entire grouping of all participants is expected to be on Day4 or Day5 depending on weather condition at Kampung Kolorok, where SFWDA will carry out a charitable project for the kampung folk and school children.
The final campsite will be at Tenom Lagud Seberang Agricultural Park before the convoy rolls back to Kota Kinabalu on Nov 1 via the Keningau-Kimanis Highway.
Faez added that the closing dinner and prize presentation ceremony would be held at Hakka Hall at Tanjung Lipat in Likas, where numerous attractive prizes for lucky draws awaited the lucky winners including a few return air tickets for two, courtesy of AirAsia and MASwing.
Like in the past, the overall champion, and the first and second runners-up are set to bring home hefty cash prizes and sponsorship goodies worth hundred of thousands of ringgit.
The event, being one of STB’s Calendar of Events will see many foreign and local print and travel magazine journalists along with few electronic television crews covering the event this year.