24 August, 2004
Defending champion Tengku Djan Ley Tengku Mahaleel has declined the favoruites tag for this weekend’s Petronas Primax 3 Merdeka Millennium Endurance 2006 (MME); saying that any team is capable of winning the endurance race.
Djan, who would be partnering Australian Damien French and Proton R3 colleague Faidzil Alang for Proton R3 Racing, said until half of the 12-hour race had been completed, no team could claim that they were in a better position than the others.
“We can only evaluate our position and the positions of the other teams after the sixth hour. Then, only we can make any realistic prediction,†says Djan, who had his fair share of misfortunes in the MME that traced back to 2000.
Partnering former GT driver Genji Hashimoto and Australian Tony Riccirdello, Djan and the Amprex Motorsports Proton R3 Racing Team completed 279 laps in their modified Lotus Exige 300RR within the 12-hour period to taste his first ever victory in the event last year.
Pre-race driver interview
While noting that no other team had ever managed to defend their overall title, he was confident in the capabilities of his team Proton R3 team crew and the driving skills of Faidzil and French, who is the Kumho Tires Lotus Trophy champion for 2004 and 2005.
“We are happy with the performance of both drivers and I think we will be doing pretty well this year,†said Djan at the pre-event press conference at the circuit where he was joined by three-time winner Tommy Lee, 2003 winner Eric Yeo, 2004 winner Eddie Lew and G1 Racing team principal Chin Jit Pyng.
Driving for Honda Malaysia Racing Team for the fourth year, Eddie felt that his biggest challenge would be the early part of the race during midnight as the circuit would be crowded and his Honda machine would need to pass the slower cars.
“It’s important not to have any incident. At the same time, we also need to go all out to ensure that we would be trailing the faster open class cars too far,†said Eddie, who would be driving with his regular partners, Farriz Fauzy and Super GT driver Hiroki Katoh.
Having driven the two-liter Honda Civic machine for Honda Malaysia Racing Team for the past two seasons, Tommy had reverted back to a fully modified Porsche GT3 Cup to boost his chances to win the overall title.
“It was a very difficult decision for me to leave Honda. But, my target has always been to win the overall title and I believe I can do it better with the Porsche GT3 Cup Cup car,†said Tommy, who would be partnering Sweden’s Sven Herberger and Mokhzani Mahathir.
Victorious with Firhat Mokhzani and TJ Chin in 2003, Eric dismissed suggestions that his G1 Racing Team was the overwhelming favourite with the awesome 500-horsepower Nissan Skyline GT-R 34, which is specially flown from Japan for this race.
“I believe that everybody will agree that in endurance racing it’s all about teamwork and close understanding between the drivers and the team members apart from the capability of the machine itself,†he said.
Elaborating further, team manage Chin Jit Pyng said the car, which won the Nurburgring 24-hour Endurance race, was not supposed to be used in a racing anymore and was scheduled to be restored in the museum.
“But, we managed to convince the owner to let us used the car for one more race at the MME and we are happy to have that opportunity to try this car,†said Chin, adding that the team would also be supported by a group of four engineers from SHIFT RaceCar Engineering of Japan to boost their chances.
With a total entry of 87 cars, the teams and drivers would be going into qualification tomorrow with the knowledge of only 77 cars would be making the actual grid for the race.
The Petronas Primax 3 Merdeka Millennium Endurance 2006 would be flagged off by Malaysia Motorsports Commission Chairman Datuk Azman Yahya at 12.07am on Sunday, August 27.
Source: SIC Media
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