The 2009 Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race lived up to its thrilling expectation of being the first MME with a smaller field of cars - 43 to be exact compared to the 70 over cars that previous editions of the MME used to feature. The introduction of the Sepang 1000KM race successfully increased the standards of the MME with regards to the cars and competition.It was the Petronas Syntium Team that really stole the show. Starting the race from lower down the grid, both the car’s made their way up the field and by the third hour had a commanding lead
in the Class O category and had the overall lead as well.
Driving a BMW Z4, drivers Tatsuya Kataoka, Manabu Orido and Johan Adzmi snatched the first place from their team mates Nobuteru Taniguchi, Masataka Yanagida and Fariqe Hairuman in car number 28 when they (car 28) had a puncture with less than 20 minutes left on the clock dropping
to second place. “It was a real honor to be able to race with the two experienced Super GT drivers (Tatsuya and Manabu) as they thought me a lot through the race,” said Johan, the youngest on the podium that night. “Our strategy was to take it easy on the car and complete the race and tha
t’s what we did and it pulled through for us.”
The biggest upset fell upon the defending champions Team Porsche Club Singapore. Their car first stalled at the start and failed to start the formation lap, this resulted in the team losing their p
ole position and had to start the race from the pit lane as the last car. The team later stagged a brave fight up the pack and were in second place when disaster struck again in the form of a rear suspension failure which forced them to pit 45 minutes into the race. They later finished the race in third place with six laps down over the winning team. A rather remarkable comeback for the Singaporean team.
In Class A1, the Radical SR8 of Fugazi Racing lived up to the teams e
xpectations and proved to be reliable over the course of the 12-hou
r race only showing minor problems in the final 3
0minutes when Alex Yong came in for a driver change and a refuel. The car’s starter had a problem and this forced the team to pit in for about eight minutes for a new starte
r. The team completed a total of 284 laps with a best time of 2:11.151 and were one lap ahead of the second placed J’s Racing Labs Honda S2000. With drift king Keiichi Tsuchiya behind the wheel in the closing laps, the team were confident but chasing the Radical pr
oved to be a little too much to accomplish. The team ultimately finished the race with 277 laps and a best time of 2:27.263. A good 16 seconds down on the Radical’s best lap.
And finally in class A2 winner is team Type R racing headed by Wong Yew Choong, Soh Kee Koon and Lai Wee Sing finishing the race with 279 laps under their belt. “Thanks to my team for preparing the car, it was reliable throughout the race, we didn’t have to worry about that factor at all throghout the race, wong said. The race started with 46 cars, 15 in class O, 10 in class A1 and 19 in class A2. 17 cars did not finish the race with the last car completing only 140 laps in the 12 hour race.
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source: zerotohundred.com & malaysiagp.com.my
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