06 June 2009, By SIC

Flagged off by Dato’ Azman Yahya president of Motorsport Association Of Malaysia, the Sepang 1000km (S1K) race went off with 56 cars on the grid. Car 16 of Team Tung Chun Racing from Class 2 failed to reach the rolling start when it stalled right after rolling off from the starting grid.

The incident promoted car number 36 of team HPC Kegani to second spot and along with Team Type R Racing 21 dominated the first race 20 laps of the race which was completed 54:19.771.

Team R3 Proton Satria Neo competition number  12 stalled before turn of lap 15 almost a repeat of their last year’s attempt in Millennium Merdeka Endurance (MME) race.
The Sepang 1000km race is a spinoff from the successful MME race designed for particularly the teams in Class B and C of MME.

Full report here.

06 June 2009, By SIC

With an average time of 2:40.608, Class 1 Type R Racing team in the car number 21 will be starting the Sepang 1000km (S1K ) race at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) in pole position in.

According to KK Tek, between the three drivers, KK Soh, YC Wong and himself, there’s an accumulated  eight years of experience in entering the Merdeka Millennium Endurance (MME) race that’s helping them to get the pole potition.

“We are confident that we can keep ahead the rest of the teams in the race from what we have experienced in the past,” said Tek.

“We sorted the car’s suspension to suit the tyres very early so we had more time to concentrate on winning the race instead of solving nagging problems.

He added they are not slowing down from their qualifying lap times and going  to maintain an average time of 2:40 throughout the race.

Read full report here.

Final top 10 position:

1) Team Porsche Club Singapore -308 laps

2) Kencana – Hong Leong – 305 laps

3) Danville Motorsports (Class O) – 292 laps

4) Petronas Syntium Team – 288 laps

5) VRD Motorsport – 287 laps

6) ARC Bratislava – 286 laps

7) Mal Rose / Peter Leemhuis – 283 laps
Pineapple Motorsport – 280 laps

9) J’S Racing Labs – 279 laps

10) Danville Motorsports (Class A) - 279 laps

Congratulations especially to Team Proton R3 who won Class B with the Satria Neo. Awesome guys, well done! The R3gister is proud of Tengku Djan and the Proton R3 team!

Last year, SIC had a record entry of 103 cars, which was later reduced to 77 for the actual race as according to the maximum number of cars permitted by the FIA circuit license for a rolling start.

For the full article, visit Sepang International Circuits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyFsZmVepX4

Flag-off of the MME2007 race proper. Gentlemen Start Your Engines!

An in-car camera catching a battle with Proton R3′s Satria Neo during MME 2007 qualifying.

Autocross champions of their respective class in the R3TA comprising former rally drivers Ivan and Ian Khong, Hammond Lai, Ho Wai Kok, Mike Yap were joined by experienced R3 rally driver Sutan Mustafa, Proton H&T drivers Zaid and Syamin.

Three specially-prepared R3 Satria 1600 cars (same ones used in last year’s A1GP Support Race) were strapped up with cameras for driver evaluation. Pit 18 and 19 bustled with activity early in the morning, as R3 technicians made last minute adjustments to the car and camera crew swarmed different areas of the pits.

A briefing was done by Head of R3, Tengku Djan Ley who reiterated that outright speed was not the selection criteria, but rather mechanical sympathy and consistency overall, the race proper being a 12-hour endurance race.

Drivers were given a 20-minute warm up with 120bhp, 900kgs race cars around the half North Circuit. For many of the autocrossers, this was their first ever attempt at the circuit whilst for me, first ever attempt at the half circuit.

I was allocated Car 3, together with Hammond and Mike, the three of us being the tallest amongst the drivers. I was the first driver out in Car 3. Strapped in snugly in the full bucket Motordrive seat, the car felt familiar, it being a Satria. The gearshift, thankfully did not come with a short shifter ala the Stage 3 Satria R3 which I drove during the recent R3TA Round 3. The deep dish Sparco rally steering felt fantastic. I felt almost like a real race driver!

Each of the race cars were tailed by instructors in Satria R3s – two being Stage 2 (one being my own, borrowed by R3) and the other, the menacing Stage 3. Different cars were observed closely behind by Tengku Djan, Faidzil Alang and Adian Yein Khalid, all accomplished and experienced race drivers.

Warm Up Laps
I took my out lap cautiously, with Faidzil on my tail. It was weird being chased by my own car! The race car was sensitive and twitchy although not overly so. It had massive grip despite running on old tires slicks. The un-servoed brakes needed getting used to however. Un-servoed brakes feel as if there is no bite if you don’t stomp on it initially. Unlike usual braking on road cars where we would apply initial pressure, then gradually increase, braking technique here is reversed. Hit it hard, then modulate.

Turns 1 to 5 were familiar and I had little problems getting round them, except adjusting to braking points, different to my road car. I found the need to brake earlier. Turn 6 was odd and different. Where on a full circuit it was a straight forward approach to Turns 7 and 8, Turn 6 on the short circuit had cones condoning off the rest of the circuit, and much trickier to negate. I braked on approach and downshifted. I felt the rear stepping out and countered but it was too late. I spun out.

I regained composure and continued towards Turn 7 back onto the main straight. The 120bhp car actually felt quite fast and I hit 170km/h on the straight, before braking hard at 100m. I found myself lifting off a little earlier, again not too confident with the brakes. While turning in on Turn 1, I spun out again! This is totally unprecedented! My first ever spin at Turn 1! Hah! Like they say, there will always be a first time in anything right?

The rest of my warm up laps were smooth thankfully, although I found myself constantly adjusting and trying out different braking and turning in points. The car felt very good and grippy. I braked as late as I felt comfortably so and downshifted as smooth as I could. Being in a sensitive car, I had to be much more aware on braking, weight transfer and steering input. I did a good 7 to 8 laps before being called in to pit. The other lanky driver Hammond, went out next.

To be continued in Part 2. Pics and full timed runs to come.