JUST a few months ago, 16-year-old DRM Racing Team racer Amer Harris Jefry was halfway into the first heat of the third leg of the 2019 IAME Series Asia go-kart tournament in Pattaya, Thailand, when he sensed something amiss with his vehicle.
“I had overtaken two racers and was vying for fifth place when my brakes started to feel off. It felt spongy. Seconds later, I pressed the brakes but it was just... gone. I hit the tyre wall at over 100kph,” he recalled.
His mother, Siti Hajar Rizlan, said her heart felt like it stopped for a few seconds.
“Every time my son is on the track, I feel like dying. When Amer crashed at the Thailand circuit, we rushed to the spot and the first thing Amer said to us was, ‘I couldn’t feel my legs’. Hospitals and surgeries were already on my mind at that point, not to mention the whole process that we would likely go through just to bring him home. But then he said to me, ‘I still want to race tomorrow’.
“That’s how much he loves the sport,” she said.
After a series of tests and treatments at a hospital, doctors ruled out serious injuries but Amer was kept warded. He was advised to rest fully for three days and sit out of the final race.
However, the sportsman in him refused to give up, despite knowing that not finishing a heat meant he had to start from the last spot among more than 20 other rivals.
“We had come too far just give up. I told my parents I wanted to race the next day and even though I didn’t finish the heats to secure a good position, I still wanted to compete,” said Amer.
The next morning, he insisted on racing despite still not being able to walk properly. But by noon, he could move slightly better and as he hopped on one leg, he was assisted into the kart.
Reluctantly, Amer’s parents allowed him to go back on the Bira Kart track for the pre-finals segment of the tournament.
“You have to know your cart from A-to-Z. You need to know how to set it up and make little changes to have a good setup. To win the race you need to understand how the parts are supposed to behave, how fast the tyres are degrading during races so that you remember to conserve them till the end of the race, and so on.
“During that particular race, I was literally screaming in my helmet because my left leg was hurting so bad, but I kept on racing. In the pre-finals, I managed to climb from last to eighth (position),” said Amer.
In the finals later that day, Amer went on to win the third leg of the year-long tournament. The win propelled his rank to first in the Senior category of the IAME Asia 2019.
“It was a remarkable weekend for me but I didn’t get to fully enjoy it because of the pain,” he recalled with a laugh.
“For me, winning and losing is not very different. A win makes you feel that you’ve conquered all, but winning today is for today. The next day, you restart everything. Losing is just a better setback for you to get back up stronger and harder,” said Amer.
Making comebacks to finish on the podium is not a strange occurrence when it comes to this young racer.
Having been exposed to racers since he was a 5-year-old, the talented racer learnt a lot simply by observing and emulating the driving skills and competitive spirit of his father, Jefry Talib.
As Jefry was an avid speedster who frequented track days, local tournaments and group drives, Amer was exposed to established racers including Tengku Djan Ley Tengku Mahaleel, Jazeman Jaafar and Fairuz Fauzy.
Having started racing since he was a 9-year-old, the eldest out of three siblings has achieved numerous success internationally, so much so that his younger brother is now showing an interest in motorsports, too.
His first notable win was in the 2016 Rotax Max Challenge Asia, where he was the Cadet Champion.
Two years later, he went on to win the Senior category. Also last year, Amer clinched the X30 Asia Cup Final 2018 Vice Champion crown and repeated the same feat in the X30 Asia Cup 2019.
The 2019 IAME Series Asia, which features races in Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, ended spectacularly for Amer as well when he finished second overall despite the crash in Thailand.
He is also currently leading the Rotax Asia Max Challenge 2019 championship with 390 points.
“Amer has also tried out for Formula 4 (F4) and he performed well to garner an offer to compete in the F4 SEA. However, the constraint is funding.
He had also received invitation to race in Europe and which again, we faced the same constraint. So we really hope to secure more funding from interested parties out there,” said Jefry.
The cost for F4 is approximately RM500,000 for the whole championship.
Currently, Amer is now independently seeking financial support and has even drawn up proposals and budgeting on his own.
“I want to race in more international tournaments and fly the Malaysian flag on their podiums soon,” he said.
