2018 Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival in Johor – day two

More racing action yesterday at the Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) Festival, which continued on day two at Medini City in Iskandar Puteri, Johor. While minimal rain meant that there was cleaner racing and fewer pileups in the Vios Challenge race series, it wasn’t without its own dramatic incidents.

As before, the Sporting Class kicked off proceedings, with race one winner Wong Chin Eeg slipping into the lead at the start. However, Dream Chaser’s Brendan Anthony closed in by the end of the first lap and passed Wong coming into turn one. While Wong kept Anthony honest over the course of the race, Panglima City’s Kenneth Koh had to fend off an advancing Brandon Lim from Tedco Racing for third.

Behind the top four, Team Distinctive Model’s Clement Yeo brushed his way past Shanmuganathan Arumugam at turn one on lap nine, but was too cautious going into the hairpin and was passed by both Shan and Datuk Ken Foo. Two laps later, Yeo outbraked himself while trying to dive past Shan into the first corner and shunted heavily into Shan, sending both of them into the wall.

The damaged barrier caused water to be strewn onto the track, so turn one was yellow flagged for the rest of the race. Even so, there was one final tangle on the penultimate lap, as Team Nanoplus’ Patrick Tam crashed into Goh Eng Peng at turn five, causing Tam’s second retirement of the weekend.

The celebrity Promotional Class began with Shawn Lee once again leading Shukri Yahaya, while Venice Min had to peel into the pits early on due to a throttle issue. Janna Nick, who wanted to continue the good form she showed on day one, made her way up to fifth place before locking up and clipping the wall on lap three, bringing out the safety car.

When racing resumed on lap five, Shukri Yahaya managed to pass Lee coming into turn one, but the beatboxer regained the place two laps later. Meanwhile, Fattah Amin, who lost third place to Geraldine Gan on the opening lap before quickly retaking it, was now under pressure from Danny Koo for the final podium position. However, on lap 10, Koo slammed into the wall heading out of turn two, and with that, Lee, Shukri and Fattah cruised to the chequered flag in the same positions they finished in the first race.

The final race featuring the premier Super Sporting class had plenty to keep things interesting. Boy Wong from ST Wangan made a great start and tried to dive past leaders Laser Motor Works’ Keifli Othman and Team Nanoplus’ Tengku Djan coming into the first corner, but Djan closed the door on Wong and pushed him into the wall, ending his race prematurely.

Syafiq Ali of M7 Racing moved up to third place as a result, and took the fight to Keifli and Djan. While all attention was at the battle in front, Dream Chaser’s Mitchell Cheah crashed into Kenny Lee at turn one on lap 10, losing a wheel in the process.

As the race wore on, Djan suffered from fading brakes, allowing Syafiq close the gap despite brushing the wall on turn four. On the last lap, Syafiq outbraked himself coming into turn one, which Djan anticipated by giving him a wide berth on corner entry.

Djan then lived up to his “Prince of Drift” nickname by sliding past Syafiq to retake second. Syafiq tried to fight back but ran wide on turn three and hit the wall, causing a puncture. This allowed William Ho, who led a quiet race for the most part, to sweep past and take third.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival returns to MAEPS Serdang in March for the fourth and final round, where the champions in each category of the Vios Challenge will be crowned. There’s still plenty to play for, so expect yet more heart-stopping action.

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