Petronas Syntium Team wins Super Taikyu season opener at Korea’s new Inje Speedium circuit

PST Inje Korea

It was a perfect weekend for the Petronas Syntium Team in Korea, as they won both races of the 2013 Super Taikyu season opener at the brand new Inje Speedium track.

Fariqe Hairuman set the pace when he won the first race in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 car #28, with Melvin Moh in sister car #1 in second. Also starting from pole, Jono Lester gave the team greater reason to cheer when he won the afternoon race with the same car on the 3.88 km circuit. Lester set the track’s fastest lap time of 1:35.723.

Dominic Ang in sister car #1 fought hard for second place with Japanese GT driver Kazuki Hoshino of car #81, but eventually finished less than a second behind to claim the last spot on the podium. Both races over the weekend were 45-minute sprints with no driver change or pit stops.

PST Taikyu

This is the team’s third time racing in Korea, having scored a victory on every outing. Back in 2000, the team won the Asian class and finished seventh overall in the Korean Inter-Tec 2000 Touring Car Race held in Pusan, an invitational Super Taikyu race. The late Malaysian Hairol Azmi Buntat and multiple South African touring car champion Michael Briggs raced in the 150 km endurance race with a factory 230 hp Nismo Nissan Pulsar ZIR.

In 2005, under the name Team Petronas Syntium Proton, Fariqe beat German driver Franz Engstler and won Race 2 in a Proton Impian for the Asian Touring Car Championship that was held at the Taebaek Circuit.

Petronas Syntium Team is racing for a sixth consecutive Super Taikyu title, and they’re facing tougher competition this season with six other teams in the eight-car GT3 category, the biggest field for the class ever. The next race will be at Japan’s Twin Ring Motegi on July 20-21.

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Danny Tan

Danny Tan loves driving as much as he loves a certain herbal meat soup, and sweet engine music as much as drum beats. He has been in the auto industry since 2006, previously filling the pages of two motoring magazines before joining this website. Enjoys detailing the experience more than the technical details.

 

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