Malaysia Based Motorcycle Racing Photographer MCP 2025 Round 3 LYL 33.JPG

Malaysian Cub Prix 2025 Round 3 – Tight Corners, Jungle Walls, and a Circuit Nobody Saw Coming

LYL Monkey Canopy & International Karting Circuit | Selangor | Malaysia

3°03'06.6"N 101°50'47.3"E

A Pro-Level Karting Track, an Overhead Section… and 18 Corners? Sorry, Come Again?!

Round 3 of the 2025 PETRONAS Malaysian Cub Prix Championship didn’t roll into a typical town circuit or a familiar venue. No sir. It dropped us straight into something none of us had on our bingo cards — the LYL Monkey Canopy Circuit, a brand-new battlefield carved into lush jungle hills and surrounded by rock faces that looked like a mini Aragon. Add in an overhead walkway that gave serious Twin Ring Motegi vibes, and suddenly the Cub Prix found itself at a circuit that felt equal parts quirky, punishing, and strangely beautiful.

If you’re imagining a karting track that someone “converted” for bikes, bin that thought. This thing is pro-level — 18 corners, proper elevation, a maze of technical sequences, and a layout that demanded a completely different rhythm from anything else on the calendar. Before a single engine fired up, you could already tell: this round was going to be chaos of the highest quality.

A First Look: Tight, Technical, and Totally Unforgiving

Walking the track early in the morning, the first thought that hit me — aside from “how the hell am I going to photograph all of this?” — was how tight everything felt. No long straights. No breather sections. Just corners feeding into corners feeding into more corners until you didn’t know whether you were meant to brake, tip in, or pray.

From hairpins that felt like they were carved with a scalpel to chicanes that punished late braking, the layout demanded:

absolute precision
well-timed aggression
tyre-saving discipline
and a willingness to adapt on the fly

Riders who thrive on flow circuits looked instantly rattled. Riders who love the knife-fight style? They were licking their lips.

The overhead walkway was the wild card. It created a killer visual for spectators and photographers, but it also altered the sense of speed and noise as the bikes screamed underneath it. Jungle canopy above, race bikes below — welcome to Malaysia’s newest motorsport oddity.

A Circuit That Tests Riders and Photographers Alike

Movement around the circuit was… let’s call it “limited.” The pathways were narrow, barriers were close, and safety protocols were extra tight. And honestly? Fair enough. When you’ve got 150cc underbones hitting full send through sections clearly designed for tiny kart wheels, you don’t want anybody wandering about like they’re at a weekend market.

For photographers like me, it meant:

no roaming freely
no “creative shortcuts”
forced dependence on pre-selected safety zones

But that’s motorsport for you — safety trumps creativity. And honestly, working with constraints forces you to think differently. It becomes a problem-solving exercise: how do you make a killer frame when you can’t move? Find the angles the circuit does give you. Use the jungle shadows. Use the rock faces. Use the overhead structure. Lean into the textures.

Monkey Canopy wasn’t easy to shoot — but damn was it rewarding.

CP150 – A Battle of Control vs Chaos

The premier CP150 class turned into exactly the kind of tight, aggressive, elbows-out street fight the circuit was built for. Riders had no space to stretch their legs, so the race became:

brake earlier
tip in sharper
block-pass strategically
survive the heat

Teams expected carnage, but what they got was something better: intensely disciplined aggression.

Lines were tighter than usual. Mistakes were instantly punished. And watching the top riders thread through the 18-corner labyrinth felt like watching someone solve a puzzle at 150 km/h.

The key was corner exit. Those who protected the apexes looked good early, but the race belonged to the riders who mastered the drive — because at Monkey Canopy, the only way to attack the next corner is by nailing the one before it.

CP125 – Precision Becomes a Weapon

If CP150 was controlled violence, CP125 was chess at warp speed.

Riders in this class love momentum, and Monkey Canopy forced them to maintain it with surgeon-level precision. Every gear, every lean angle, every brake tap mattered. Slip wide by a tyre-width and two bikes would slide up the inside. The pressure was relentless.

The cleanest riders rose to the front. Anyone relying purely on aggression got chewed up by the circuit and spat back into mid-pack.

You could see the confidence grow in the top guys lap after lap. The ones who “got it” early looked silky smooth. The ones who didn’t? Well… they looked like they were wrestling a wild boar down a flight of stairs.

Wira KBS – Youth Meets Technical Torture

Nothing humbles young riders like an 18-corner kart track with zero forgiveness.

The Wira KBS class — Cub Prix’s breeding ground for future stars — delivered once again. The kids threw everything at it:

fearless braking
wild entries
knee-down determination

And yet, despite the chaos, you could see the discipline forming. Monkey Canopy has that effect — it forces young riders to grow in real time.

Some were sliding, some were saving near-lowsides, some found magic lines nobody else spotted — classic Cub Prix adolescence, basically.

Atmosphere – Malaysia At Its Best

Despite the unfamiliar venue, the energy was peak Cub Prix:

Fans crowding the fences
Kids chanting rider names
Food stalls steaming up the air
Mechanics wiping sweat from their eyes
Jungle wind cutting through the heat
Tyre noise echoing off rock faces

It was raw Malaysian motorsport culture. No glamour. No staging. Just pure heart and noise and community.

Monkey Canopy immediately felt like one of those circuits that will stick — the kind spectators will ask for again.

Why This Round Mattered

Round 3 wasn’t just a new venue. It was a stress test.

For riders.
For teams.
For machines.
For tyres.
For photographers.
For the championship narrative.

Monkey Canopy showed who can:

adapt fast
learn fast
stay calm under weird conditions
and still race ruthlessly

Not every round needs horsepower heroics. Sometimes the championship needs a bit of madness — and Round 3 delivered it.

Why CheekyMoto Loved It

Give us a jungle backdrop, a tricky new circuit, and a weekend full of unknowns — and we’re happy. Monkey Canopy reminded me why I love covering this series: Malaysia keeps surprising me. Just when you think you’ve seen every kind of circuit, they pull out an 18-corner karting maze in the middle of the forest.

CheekyMoto was there — sweating, shooting, and grinning the whole damn day.

Scroll down for my full photo gallery.