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We talked about Petronas Syntium Team and the Audi works team before the race, but it was Malaysia’s top racing driver Tunku Hammam Tunku Sulong and his Arrows Racing Team that claimed top spot at this year’s Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race (MMER). Partnering former European GT3 champion Christopher Haase and Dutchman Peter Kox in a Lamborghini LP560, they beat Audi Race Experience Joest’s R8 LMS by just a single lap – 315 to 314 laps.
Arrows broke the MMER 2008 record of 308 laps around the 5.543 km Sepang track by Porsche Club Singapore Racing with their win. Completing the podium in third was Nobuteru Taniguchi, Masataka Yanagida and Imran Zaharias Shaharom in their Petronas Syntium Team (PST) BMW Z4M Coupe with 308 laps.
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You might have noticed the absence of Porsche RSR teams on the podium, and it was poor reliability that put them out of contention. Porsche Club Singapore Racing (Mok Weng Sun/Craig G. Baird/Richard Lietz) started from pole position and was the fastest car all weekend but mechanical problems forced them out after 119 laps. Another former winner Kencana Racing Team, featuring Sepang boss Mokhzani Mahathir, also retired after 129 laps.
Other big name retirees included defending champion PST, which had Tatsuya Katoaka, Fariqe Hairuman and Melvin Moh stop with 80 minutes to go. They were in fourth before the No.1 Z4M broke down. Fairuz Fauzy and his Mofaz Racing Team may have been the fastest in qualifying in the Sports Production category, but they were the first to retire after only 30 laps when the engine of their Aston Martin blew.
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The MMER jinx for Empire Motorsports continued for a third year after their Lotus 2-11 burst into flames during refueling; bringing their challenge to an end after just 56 laps. Alex Yoong, Matthew Marsh and Marchy Lee (Lamborghini LP560) lasted 198 laps before packing up.
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The Sports Production class was won by Team Tracy Sports, featuring Masatama Kawaguchi, Masayuki Ueda and Adam Han. The Touring Production class was topped by the Honda Malaysia Racing Team trio of Eddie Lew, Aaron Lim and Rueben Wong. They did 281 laps in their Honda Civic Type R to be 8th overall. They beat HKS Garage by six laps.
“I regard today’s victory as the most important one. We’ve had near misses in the past two years and I am glad to repay them with this win,” said Eddie, who also won the overall MMER crown in 2004 and four Class A titles in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
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Congrats Tg Hammam & Co..
Lamboghini Gallardo showed its superiority to dominate racing world currently
Civic type R was 8th in the TP class (meaning lowest class), if u notice the top 7 was cars like porsche, lambo, aston, R8, Z4m! if u want a fast/ reliable and relatively “cheap” car, get a civic FD2R. second “best” car will have to be intergra DC5
it even beat cars WAY above its category (SP class) (e.g. Porsche GT3/ 911, Lotus, and a bunch of porsche, lambo, aston, mosler, Z4m – which didnt even classified – less then 75%)
Congrats to Tengku Hammam and team as well. Good to see there another winner, this time a Lamboghini although expected the Audis to win. Hoping to see more world class competitors to participate in this endurance event!
credit to Tunku Hammam he almost got a perfect race…congrats~ see u next year edition~..btw..this year J’s Racing and Spoon team not participant..love to see them last year..because of the track was too hot..k.Tsuchiya swimming in his cute pool just behind team pit..haha~
Dear paul, where can I get the full result?
http://www.malaysiangp.com.my/node/1581
Thanks bro!
no more lotus r3 team ?
Tunku Hammam’s Arrows Racing, was run by Hans Reiter himself at Sepang with Reiter’s professional drivers. Hans Reiter owns Reiter Engineering. Reiter Engineering designs and builds all racing Lamborghinis for Lamborghini (contracted through Audi Sport I believe). The winning car was the Reiter ‘works’ team. So the GT class podium was filled by works teams – Audi Team Joest and the Petronas Syntium team.
Good sign. Hope more such teams next year.
When will we have a hybrid match? All these guys are not eco-friendly. They’re burning more fuels! Save the earth. We should ride bicycle.
i think you lost ur way to this site. u shudve be at the earth hour, or save the earth sites :p
why they race like nobody knows 1?! where was the promo?
all my respect goes to the Audi R8 LMS!!! first time @ SIC and they finished podium!!!
Vorsprung durch Technik!!!
While the entrants are getting better each year, I would like to see more variety :
In GT class – no Japanese makes at all , maybe somebody from Japan should field Nissan GT-Rs next time.
In Touring Car class – The opposite, no European makes at all – Perhaps BMW, Ford, Seat, Chevy?
The Petronas Syntium BMW Z4 in GT class is essentially a Japanese run team with Malaysian/Japanese drivers. They mainly compete in Super Taikyu in Japan.
Any brand can enter any of the classes. It’s up to the participants
This was a great win for Tunku and Reiter. Reiter has been on a roll lately and the Lamborghini (as a brand) is finally picking up some great results.