The Petronas Syntium Team Mercedes SLS GT3, driven by Nobuteru Taniguchi, Masataka Yanagida and Dominic Ang, has won the 2011 Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race (MMER). The sister Gullwing of Tatsuya Kataoka, Fariqe Hairuman and Bernd Schneider finished third. The Mercs sandwiched the Audi R8 trio featuring Le Mans champ Marcel Fassler, Frank Biela and Marco Werner.
Starting from second on the grid during the flag off at noon, Taniguchi/Yanagida/Ang (car 15) has been second best to Kataoka/Hairuman/Schneider (car 28) who started from pole and set the pace with a healthy gap for the first 10 hours. Then disaster struck. With two hours to go on lap 261, the No.28 had a mechanical problem shortly after a routine stop, forcing Schneider to return to the pits.
The Belgian Audi Club’s R8 then took the lead, before SLS No.15 woke up from their slumber to gradually inch their way from fourth position (where they were for most of the race) to second, before stealing the lead at the death. Their cause was also helped when a problem with the Audi forced an unscheduled stop. It was another almost unbelievable scenario for Biela and Werner, who again finished as bridesmaids after suffering disappointment at the hands of Arrows Racing last year.
Taniguchi/Yanagida/Ang stopped the clock at 12:01:57.624 followed by Audi with 12:03:08.113. Both did a record 321 laps, beating the previous record by a whopping six laps. Kataoka/Hairuman/Schneider finished the race six laps behind in 12:02:22.211. The latter eventually claimed third from a Ferrari in the 11th hour after a lengthy time in the pits.
“I am absolutely delighted with this result! It was overall an exciting race with a lot of action on track and a good clean battle with the other competitors. It was also a very closely fought race, one of the closest in many years! For us, this was especially a memorable win, as the team have spent the last 15 months getting this project off the ground,” said David Wong, Team Principal of Petronas Syntium Team.
“We had to two cars for this year’s challenge and the No.28 car was the clear favourite. They were really quick all weekend and had a very good strategy. For the No.15 car our strategy was not to push until the final two hours. We wanted to try to manage the car, protect all the different parts – the drivetrain, transmission and tyres, for example. In the end, the strategy did pay off and I am really happy that we won today,” said Japanese driver Nobuteru Taniguchi.
Click to enlarge results
Petronas’ win was their first GT Class and overall title win since 2009 when Kataoka, M.Orido and Johan Adzmi endured 306 laps of Sepang.
In the Sports Production class, Adrian D’ Silva, Mohd Fahrizal Hasan and Ian Ross Geekie emerged victorious and were seventh overall after completing 277 laps, while ST Powered led by Teh Kian Boon, Aloysius Lek and Desmond Soh romped to victory in the Touring Production doing 274 laps. Their Civic FD2-R was eighth overall.
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the race is not fair to begin with. they should use cars from the same class for the race. Honda Civic vs SLS?? kelakar la pulak
read la properly got class what? TP class for civic n scirocco…
sir.. you are funny
where do you get the idea of this ‘civic vs sls’. , but don’t worry, the word ‘read’ can improve your knowledge.
Mr K = Mr Kelakar
Very funny la…i can’t stop laughing.
plz read the article first WOI!!!
way to go petronas and malaysia.congratulation on winning MMER.
Congrats Merc GullWing.
Nice!
The whole bunch of Scirocco was beaten by the civic FD2 duo. Even an R8. Its a good testimony from an everyday car (though differently tuned).
Those Scirocco lose to local Altezza as well.
Kudos to LKM Racing’s Lamborghini and Clearwater racing’s Ferrari , it was fun to watch them kacau the SLSs and R8s :-)
le mans champ beaten? hope more pro le mans team will participate in next year MMER. good job petronas
F1 is better, this one is TOO SLOW.
different class la bro. GT car based from everyday car, F1 is specific purpose car. of coz la F1 build for high speed, but GT car is a normal car modified for high speed and also long duration race.
Did I say they are the same class?
You should say Star Wars pod racing is better than all kind of racing we have on earth..
you go drive F1 car everyday to work lah then~
RedBull AirRace world championship is better, F1 is TOO SLOW.
F1 car is a CAR, these all are also a CAR.
Is RedBull AirRace world championship using a Car??
If you can not differentiate between a CAR and an Airplane, better go back to kindergarten.
i thought you are referring the word ‘TOO SLOW’ to speed. Since you want comparison between car than how about this:
FIA European Drag Racing Championship is better, F1 is TOO SLOW.
Top Fuel drag racing is better, F1 is TOO SLOW.
The reality is:
Every race has it own crowd, there is no need for such comparison. Whether it is F1, MMER, Le Mans, WRC, drag racing, D1 etc, every single race has it own objective (to satisfy it own crowd) and none is better than other. Only fan boy keep making fuss and look down others.
p/s: kindergarten did not teach hatred
Drag racing? The monkey also know how to drive car straight.
The reality is:
I like F1 more than this, so why are you so butt hurt and making fuss?
fan boy never learn… if you like F1, then why bother looking down at MMER at MMER cover story, save your praise for F1 at F1 cover story lor.
the reality is :
no racing is easy… every race need technical, skill, knowledge and etc.
p/s: since when monkey can drive car?
badbet:” The reality is:
Every race has it own crowd, there is no need for such comparison. ”
then why are you comparing redbull air race, EDR, etc with F1??
hello siroko….
I wan to download desktop picture of the Petronas Team SLS! Cant find it on their official website, I am drooling….
lucky win for petronas cause the audi lms got tyre punctured at the critical moment