Porsche Club Singapore Wins Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race
31 August 2008, By Sepang International Circuits
Team Porsche Club Singapore became the first foreign team to win the Merdeka Millennium Endurance (MME) race after beating off a stiff challenge from defending champion Kencana Hong Leong Racing Team at Sepang Circuit tonight.
Flagged off by Motorsports Commission of Malaysia (MCM) chairman Datuk Azman Yahya at 11.50am, the partnership Mok Weng Sun, Alexander Nicolas Davison and Daryl O’ Young started from pole position; but had to play second fiddle to defending champion until the fifth hour before taking over the lead.
They did not look back after that and started edging away from the team of Sven Herberger, Lars Erik Nielsen and Mokhzani Mahathir and by the seventh hour, Team Porsche Club Singapore had opened a one-lap advantage over their rivals and eventually finishing the race in stylish fashion by setting a new record of 308 laps within the 12-hour duration.
Driving identical Porsche 997 RSR machines, the team from Singapore and Kencana Hong Leong Racing Team made the ninth edition of the MME a private battle between them as their rivals simply could not match their speed and acceleration. Kencana Hong Leong finished with 304 laps.
The Australian partnership of David Wall, Barton Mower and Damien Flack completed the podium for the open class; finishing third in their Porsche 996-RSR with 291 laps.
It was another heartbreaking race for Fariqe Hairuman and his Petronas Syntium Racing after his car had collided with a back marker; sending his BMW Z4 machine to the railing and out of the race for a second consecutive year.
Their other car, however, did manage to complete the race; with the partnership of Nobuteru Tanaguchi, Manabu Orido and Johanes Stuck finishing the race in fourth position with 288 laps.
Class B for cars between 1601cc and 1900cc was topped by the trio from Proton R3 Motorsports with Faidzil Alang Abdul Rahman, Mohd Hafizy Hafiz and Syafiq Ali winning the race in their Proton Satria Neo covering an impressive 251 laps.
The battle for Class C for cars below 1600cc was topped by the partnership of Khairul Zaman Abdul Rahman, Perajun Krishnan and Mohamad Akmal Adekkapachi, who made 252 laps.
Top 10 Finishers : Sepang Circuit – 5.543km
| Pos |
Name |
Laps
|
| Race Classification after 12 hours |
| 1 |
Mok Weng Sun Alexander Nicolas Davison, Daryl O’ Young,
(Porsche 997 RSR)
|
308 |
| 2 |
Sven Herberger Mokhzani Mahathir, & Lars Erik Nielsen
(Porsche 997 RSR) |
304 |
| 3 |
David Wall, Barton Mower, Damien Flack
(Porsche 996-RSR) |
291 |
| 4 |
Nobuteru Tanaguchi, Manabu Orido, Johanes Stuck
(BMW Z4 M) |
288 |
| 5 |
Ian Ross Geekie, Dean Grant, Marc Cini
(Porsche 996 GT3) |
287 |
| 6 |
Konopka Miroslav, Chris Reindler, Markus Lungstrass
(Porsche 996 GT3) |
286 |
| 7 |
Mal Rose, Peter Leemhuis, Tony Alford
(Holden Commodore) |
283 |
| 8 |
Tommy Lee, Brent Odgers, Razlan Razali
(Porsche 997) |
280 |
| 9 |
Junichi Umemoto, Yoshiharu Kusumoto, Hideo Kubota
(Honda S2000) |
279 |
| 10 |
Mark Eddy, Grant Johnson, Dean Flore
(Honda Integra) |
279 |
Class Winners
| Class O (Open class) |
|
Mok Weng Sun Alexander Nicolas Davison, Daryl O’ Young (Porsche Club Singapore)
|
| Class A (Production cars above 1900cc) |
| Junichi Umemoto, Yoshiharu Kusumoto, Hideo Kubota (J’s Racing)
Mark Eddy, Grant Johnson, Dean Flore (Danville Motorsports)
Lai Wee Sing, Ahmad Faez Yahya, Brian Whilock (R-Engineering)
|
| Class B (Production Cars between 1601cc and 1900cc) |
| Hafizi Hafiz, Faidzil Alang Abdul Rahman, Syafiq Ali (Proton R3) |
| Class C (Production Cars below 1600cc) |
| Perajun Krishan, Mohd Akmal Adekkapachi, Khairul Zaman Rahman (Lochi Racing) |
For details, contact the Press Officer Azhar Ghazali at 019 383 7865.
