LEONA CHIN’S BIOGRAPHY
Don’t let her gentle demeanor fool you. Leona Chin is the ultimate girl-next-door spiced with spunk, speed, and thrill. Having mastered what is predominantly considered a man’s turf and sport, Leona brazenly breaks down stereotypes by pushing the boundaries of women’s strength, limit, and endurance.
Hi, I’m Leona Chin from Malaysia, I am a Motorsports Athlete.
Ever since middle school, I was a nerdy girl and I was already hooked on cars.
My friends are car enthusiasts and I will go out with them to play electronic racing games. When I got my first car since it was a rear-wheel-drive, I decided to install some auto parts for my car, and I learned a lot about cars. I often go to watch the drifting performances and watch them drive in the car park or go-kart tracks. One day, a friend took me and fit a helmet on my head, and put me in the passenger seat of a drifting car. At that time, I felt the feeling of the car drifting for the first time. Really interesting. It changed my life. I met a drifting coach. He taught me the basic way of drifting. I started to participate in drifting competitions in various regions. I am also very grateful to the partners who sponsored me.
One day a friend informed me that there was a full female race team looking for new female drivers. I registered and entered the team. I am the fastest driver on the team. I have joined many training courses and public relations training classes to race in the Malaysian 12-hour Endurance Race. Our Female team ranked second in qualifying. After 12 hours, our team ranked sixth in the race. I didn’t participate before. After my qualifying results, I was very surprised because I didn’t expect that I got a good lap time. As there were 77 cars on the track, It was crazy and I was very nervous. It was a great experience after that and I learned a lot.
At this time, I started to be interested in the Circuit Racing field. I hired a manager and coach, Akina Teo. My coach suggested that I participate in a variety of events and learned the mechanics of various powertrain systems such as FWD, RWD, and 4WD. So I participated in various automotive competition disciplines everywhere. Including drift, rally, gymkhana, karting, drag racing, off-road, time trials, autocross, and more. After ten years of experience in various car races. I can say that I am a motorsport athlete and no longer a drifting driver.
I finally found my strongest discipline, and that was Circuit Racing. So I planned my goal. I decided to participate in the GT event in the future. Since running a racing car is a very expensive sport, I can’t continue running unless I find a big sponsor. In order to find money to continue racing, I did a lot of work related to the automotive industry. My manager and I went to organize activities to look for sponsors. We organized various drifting taxi performances with various companies, organized training classes, appearances in advertisements and reality shows, and became actors and stunt drivers. A variety of different jobs in order to support my racing career. I used the simulator to practice a few days before the race. I also go to the gym to train my body.
When I wanted to get my international racing license, I had a lot of difficulties. It was not easy to get it because I needed to meet the criteria to upgrade my license. It is expensive to participate in each competition and it takes time to find money to compete. In Malaysia, if you want to upgrade to the international level of the license, you must participate in at least 6 races in one year. It’s really expensive to run six races a year and find enough money to run the whole year. Fortunately, there is a sponsor to handle half of the cost. I needed 2 years to upgrade from one level to the next level, as it was not enough to be upgraded in one year. It’s really sad, because I did not have enough money, and I faced many obstacles. When I finally got my international racing license, I participated in the Renault Clio Cup China Series in China, Thailand, and South Korea. I only had enough budget for the race. Because of the limited resources, it is very difficult to race. Every time other people collide with me, it was at my own cost because the price of the repairs is very large. So every time I ran the race, I am very careful to avoid being hit. The boys will bully me when I race. Because they know that I have a money limitation. They know that if they hit my car, I can’t continue my race. It’s quite disappointing. They don’t want to lose to a woman.
Finally, I ranked runner-up in the overall championship. Throughout the year we went to China (Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhuhai), Thailand, and South Korea for the competition. After the Clio Cup China Series, I didn’t have enough money to run for the second year. So, I rest for a year. At the end of the year, someone invited me to the pre-season race of the Mini Cup Asia Challenge at Zhuhai. There were racing drivers from Japan, Hong Kong, China, and Thailand. I ranked third in that race.
So, After realizing I didn’t race in Malaysia for a long time, my manager rented a car, from Team TEDCO RACING to run the Malaysian Championship series. In the first race, I won the MTC Class Double Champion, which is a very happy moment. I also participated in the MSF Malaysia Speed Festival 2019 (this year). With a Millennium Motorsports SAGA, Saga Cup Race, I won the women’s category. I also used my Pitworks Kuraz EVO7 to participate in the SUPER STREET category and ranked third place.
During a recent motorsports award ceremony in Malaysia, I won the most inspiring female motorsport athlete award.
我是陈莉慧， 来自马来西亚。我的国语不是很好因为我在家里说英文。
嗨，我是Leona Chin 陈莉慧，我来自马来西亚
自从中学开始，我是一个书呆子的女孩，已经开始迷上车了。我的朋友们都是喜欢车而且我会跟他们一起出去玩电子赛车游戏。当我取的了我的第一辆车。既然是一辆后驱车，我决定把我的车装一些汽车配件，果然学了很多关于车的知识。我时常会去看飘移特级的表演，看着他们在汽车停车场或卡丁车场把车甩来甩去。有一天，有一个网友把我带上头盔，把我放进一台飘移车的搭档位置，那时候是我第一次感受到飘移的感觉。真的很有趣。改变了我的生活。我遇见了一个飘移教练。他教了我飘移基本的方式。我开始到各地区参加飘移比赛。我也很感谢以前帮我赞助的伙伴们。有一天一个网友通知我，他听到一个全女班的车队正在寻找新的女车手。我登机了然后进入了车队了。我在队伍里是最快的车手。尽力了很多训练班还有公共关系训练班。结果参入了马来西亚12小时房车耐力赛。排位赛得第2名，过了·12小时候，我们车队在系列里排第6名。那时是我第一年跑耐力赛，我没有参加过赛道里有77台车，感到很紧张。排位赛后，感到很惊喜因为没想到我跑得那么快。那时后是很棒的经历而且学到了很多知识。这时我对场地赛是一个新的学科。我开始对场地赛很有兴趣。我聘请了一位经理和教练，他叫张老师。我的教练建议式各种赛事，并且学起各种动力传动系统的车技术。FWD，RWD，4WD。所以我到处参加了各种汽车赛事学科。列入飘移，拉力赛，金卡纳，卡丁车，零四赛，越野，计时赛等等。过了十年后的汽车赛事的经历。我可说我是个赛车运动员不只是个飘移车手。我终于找到我的最强的学科了，那就是场地赛。所以我计划好了我的目标。我决定未来参加GT赛事。跑赛车既然是一种很高贵的运动，我不能够继续跑除非我找到了很大的赞助商。为了寻找钱来继续赛车，我作了很多和车有关的工作。我和我的经理两人去组织活动，跟各种公司举办媒体合作，寻找赞助商，我们和各种公司组织飘移搭档表演，举办训练班，做广告和真人秀节目，变成演员和替身，各种不一样的工作为了支持我的赛车事业。我有比赛前几天时，会利用模拟式器来练习。还有去健身房训练身体。
我要取得我的国际赛照时，遇到很多困难，不容易取到因为我需要参加很多的比赛，参加每个比赛很贵也需要时间找钱来比赛。在马来西亚，如果要升级国际级的赛照，最少要有一年内参加6场比赛。一年内跑6场赛，寻找足够钱跑全年的比赛，真的很贵，幸好有个赞助处理一半的费用。在2年才可以升级，一年却不够。真的很难过，因为不够钱，还有很多次遇到各种障碍。当我终于得到我的国际赛照后，我参加雷诺克里欧中国系列赛。我只有刚刚好的赞助的钱来跑全年的比赛。因为有限的资源，所以过得很困难。每次和其他人撞的时候，都是自己付出来的。很贵。因为修理工的价钱很大。所以我每次跑车时都是很小心避免被撞到。当我比赛时男生们会欺负我。因为他们知道我有钱的限制。他们知道如果他们撞到我的车，我不能够继续跑了。真的很难过。他们不想要输给一个女人。
全年的系列比赛结束后我得到了总亚军。全年里我们去了中国（上海，广东，珠海），泰国，韩国的赛道比赛。过了克里欧的比赛后，我没有足够的钱跑第2年了。我就休息了一年。年底时，有人邀请我去珠海跑迷你杯亚洲挑战赛的季前赛。比赛里有日本，香港，中国，泰国的车手。我得了季军。
我发现我没有在马来西亚跑比赛了很久，我的经理租了一台赛车，TEDCO RACING 队伍的汽车跑马来西亚房车锦标系列赛。第一场赛时，我赢MTC 系列双冠军的奖，是很高心的时刻。我也是在同一年（今年）参加了MSF 马来西亚速度节的房车赛。用了一台SAGA款的汽车，我赢了女子组的冠军杯。我也用了我的EVO7参加了SUPERSTREET 超级马路组赢了季军。
我也得了2018年马来西亚最鼓舞人心的女赛车手奖。
