The 11th edition of the Merdeka Millennium Endurance race happens this weekend at Sepang (flag off on Saturday midnight), and the competition is getting tougher. Petronas Syntium Team (PST) is the defending champion following a 1-2 finish at last year’s race, but it won’t be easy for the Super Taikyu series pacesetters (four wins out of four so far) to retain their “home race” title.
“The quality of the participants will definitely add to the level of competition we will be up against. This year, we are returning to take on the challenge in the new GT-Class with the two BMW Z4M Coupes. Looking at the level of competition in the class, it will be difficult to expect a repeat of the fantastic feat we achieved here last year. Notwithstanding, everyone on the team has been working hard preparing for this race and we are optimistic that we can be competitive,” said David Wong, PST Team Principal.
PST’s challenge will be spearheaded by 27-year old Malaysian Fariqe Hairuman who will be joined by young Malaysian Melvin Moh Chun-Ho in his MME debut. Also driving car No. 1 is experienced Japanese Tatsuya Kataoka. In car No. 28 Masataka Yanagida and Nobuteru Taniguchi will drive with Malaysian rookie Imran Zaharias Shaharom.
They should be up against a strong team in Audi Race Experience Team Joest, which will bring their Le Mans winning Audi R8 LMS here for its Asian debut. This Audi works team will also boast two former LeMans winners in drivers Frank Biela and Marco Werner. They will be joined by former MME and Porsche Carrera Cup Asia champion Daryl O’ Young.
“Yes, we have some big names. Frank won it (Le Mans) 5 times as a driver and I did it 3 times. Everyone says we are the leader in the race, but I see ourselves as a beginner,” said Werner. “The circuit is new for us, not only for the drivers, but also for the team. I’m new to the GT class. I did only 5 or 6 races with the R8, mostly on the Nurburgring, but there is a huge difference when compared to racing on an F1 Grand Prix circuit like this one here in Sepang,” he added.
Partner Biela shared the same tone. “When you come here it looks pretty easy, but when we went out there, we discovered that finding a good rhythm is not as easy as it seems when you’re looking at it for the first time,” he said.
It should be a good fight, stay tuned for updates!
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Should be great for the local motorsports. Perhaps this is the first indication that the MME is gaining more recognition from the international motor racing fraternity especially Europe’s powerhouses. Wonder how the Petronas BMW Z4 M would fare against the R8. The racing version of the new BMW Z4 has already been campaigned in this year’s FIA GT3. Maybe time for a change Petronas?..
Petronas go sponsor Satria Neo S2000 la coz they did great job. Both cars and drivers.
That will be great news for sepang, hopefully MME will be as important as other asia pacific region based endurance racers like the Dubai 24 hours or Bathurst 1000. The new audi R8 should be awesome to watch in Sepang too. But this is endurance racing so its quite hard to predict who will win this.
racerevo.com commented teams had some issues with tyre suppliers (Pirelli). If I’m not mistake, this is the 1st time the one tyre supplier rule is enforced so hope they’ll fix this quickly before the race.
wow.. Frank Biela and Marco Werner are competing this year.. with the Audi works team..!! Multiple-time Le Mans winning team and drivers.. Shows that The MME has caught the attention of the big players in endurance racing.. Bravo..!! Oh yeah, and that R8 is such a pretty car to look at..!!
P/s – i think the PST will switch to Mercs after the current Z4, considering their parnership with them in Formula 1. Bring on the AMG C-Class..!!
bring on the sls gt3 petronas….BRAND ASSOCIATES YALL!!!! BRAND ASSOCIATES!!!!!!
owh.. this Petronas involvement called brand associates…
i thought wasting money…
Do they have live broadcast on this ?
what do you think for an 24-hour broadcasting?
“bring their Le Mans winning Audi R8 LMS”
Sorry, when did the R8 win LeMans? Not even allowed to race there as it is a GT3 car…
Wonder how much Audi Malaysia paid to get these drivers with this car in M’sia…
Audi R8 did win the Le mans race from 2000 until introduction of R10 tdi. ;)
maybe they thought the this is the same car that win lemans in 2000. maybe this is effort from audi germany as strategy of “win on sunday,sells from monday to sunday”
You must be mistaken, with the sportsprototype version of Audi R8 LMP Le Mans car. If we are talking about the the Audi R8 GT3 car, (as entered by Audi team in this year’s MME) – yes, this car has not yet entered Le Mans 24 hours. Currently, in its second year competing in FIA GT3.
Great, now team PST have real world class competitors….. lets see how the kampung champion stands up to the challenge… before race start already admit difficulty haiya!! No more “getting P1, P2 and P3” of a 4 car race…..