Tyre incentive for competitors in Merdeka Race

COMPETITORS in the lower classes of Sepang's 12-hour Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race (MME) this year will be using race tyres provided by Silverstone.

"We are proud to announce that Silverstone Tyres has agreed to be the official tyre provider for Class B and C for this year's MME, which will be held at Sepang Circuit from Aug 28 to 30," said SIC press officer Azhar Ghazali.

"With the appointment of Silverstone Tyres as our sponsor, the race tyres would be available to competitors at subsidised prices for both dry and wet tyres. Tyre selection for Class A and the 'Open' class remain free," Azhar announced in a statement.

The MME will be contested by four classes with cars between 1601cc and 1900cc grouped in Class B and those below 1600cc competing in Class C.

Class A will group production cars above 1900cc and the 'Open' class will witness the battle of the modified production cars irrespective of their engine capacity.

The MME, which is the only one of two 12-hour car endurance races in the world, has traditionally attracted top drivers including former winners of the 24-Hours of Le Mans as well as those in the Super GT, Australian V8 Supercars and the Nurburgring 24-hour race.

The race last year was won by Hong Leong Kencana Racing Team, which featured Le Mans driver Lars Nielsen, Porsche test driver Sven Herberger and Malaysian Mokhzani Mahathir in a Porsche GT3 RSR race car.

According to Azhar, it is with the increase in international entries that SIC decided on prominent changes to the race regulations this year including to increase the number of qualifiers from Class A and the 'Open' class to 20 each this year as compared to a combined 25 cars from the two classes.

"The race gets faster and faster every year with more and more supercars coming to race. We decided to reduce the number of entries from Class B and C in the interest of safety," Azhar said.

While Aug 28 has been set as the official free practice day, qualifying will be held on Aug 29 with the race to be flagged off on Aug 30.

Last day for submission of entries is Aug 16.