Vios Challenge 2018 Round 1 – Kuala Terengganu kicks off Season 2 of Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival

The second season of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Vios Challenge kicked off at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin stadium in Kuala Terengganu last weekend. Three categories were formed in line with last year’s groupings, namely the Promotional, Sporting and Super Sporting classes respectively.

Race proceedings began with the Promotional class, where local celebrities comprised the starting grid of nine racers, and for the first time in the series led by a female racer, which in this case was Diana Danielle.

A street circuit layout measuring 1.65 km in length and comprising 11 turns saw to the Promotional class being a race of attrition, where proflific car-to-car contact saw four racers fail to finish Race 1, eliminating Nabil Ahmad, Aiman Tino, Khai Bahar and Nabila Razali from contention in the first race of Friday.

Thus left five finishers in the Promotional class race, with Wany Hasrita and Akio Takeyama taking fifth and fourth positions, respectively. Janna Nick fought her way through the grid, having started from the back of the pack and eventually taking third, while Akim Ahmad took the next podium step in second. Diana Danielle exhibited a commanding lights-to-flag lead of the race, taking the race win for the first race of the weekend.

The Sporting class featured a pair of graduates from the Promotional class of last year, Shawn Lee and Shukri Yahaya who took to the starting grid in first and second places respectively. Shukri’s solid start was short-lived, however, as contact made with a barrier on the first lap saw his car sustain damage to his rim, leading to a dismounted tyre.

Shawn maintained his cool to hold a commanding lead throughout the race, eventually taking the top step on the podium. He was joined by Brendon Lim and Kenneth Koh in second and third places, respectively.

The quality of racing continued to step up further with the professional racers of the Super Sporting class, with Kenny Lee starting on the grid in pole position. His teammate William Ho got a better start off the line, and shortly after took the race lead. A hard-fought battle ensued between the trio, lasting through to the end which saw William take the category’s first win for this season.

Day Two of the Vios challenge saw a reversal of order, with the race meeting of the day commencing with the Super Sporting class.

Tension appeared to be running high, even before the grid of 14 racers made it to the first of 11 turns on the 1.65 km-long circuit, as Keifli Othman made contact with Kenny Lee, resulting in the latter unable to rejoin the race due to irreparable damage to his car. Another racer fell victim to the chaos, where Eddie Liew hit a wall, bringing out the safety car for the first three laps as the track was cleaned of debris.

Syafiq Ali emerged the race leader out of the initial mess, with Mark Darwin and William Ho hot on his heels in pursuit. William was closest to race-leading Syafiq for the next 10 laps, though the latter kept his cool and grew his lead to nearly two seconds clear of William by the end of the race to take his first win.

A win in Race 1 and a second-place finish in Race 2 saw William Ho take the lead in the points standings. “While I would have loved to have ended the weekend with a double victory, I’m happy with today’s second place. The season is still long and there was really no point taking too much risk at the expense of damaging the car and my chances,” said William.

The amateur racers of the Sporting class ran a race relatively free of drama, in the earlier stints of the race at least. Rain threw the proverbial spanner into the works 15 laps in, bringing out the safety car for the remainder of the Sporting class race. Patrick Tam drove a commanding race, leading from lights-to-flag for an eventual win.

Further afield, Race 1 winner and Promotional class graduate Shawn Lee started in eighth and made his way up to fifth by the end of the first lap. Brendon Lim and Kenneth Koh put immense pressure on Shawn thereafter, and eventually the Race 1 winner of the Sporting class had to settle for seventh behind the duo.

Delayed due to track work in order to clear standing water, the Promotional class capped the day’s racing on the second day, with Race 1 winner Diana Danielle starting from eighth on the grid as part of a reverse grid start for the top eight finishers from Race 1. This saw Wany Hasrita start the final race of the day in pole position, though she failed to capitalise and stalled at the start.

This opened a gap for Akio Takeyama to jump into the lead with Akim Ahmad in the chase, who made his move at the end of the first lap for the race lead thereafter. Although the rain had cleared, standing water in certain parts continued to attract cars to walls.

Aiman Tino battled with Nabil Ahmad for second place behind Akim, until Aiman managed to get one over Nabil for second place. Aiman continued to chisel down the gap to Akim which at this point was over 20 seconds, and was looking to be on track for a battle to the finish. The top step of the podium proved elusive to Aiman this round, however, though he did close to gap to a mere 1.7 seconds behind Race 2 winner Akim.

The Vios Challenge, as part of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival will head to the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) in October, where more high-speed action between the walls await.

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