Sepang Circuit Opened For Night Practices From July 14

With the 12-hour Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race (MME) just around the corner, event organizer Sepang International Circuit (SIC) will be opening its track for night practices with the first session to be held on July 14.

A total 13 days and 18 sessions had been allocated for the free practice sessions including 10 sessions dedicated for night practices; with the final night session to be held on August 26, which is two days before the official free practice.

Apart from July 14, the other dates fixed for the MME free practices are July 21, July 29, August 9, August 10, August 14, August 19, August 20 and from August 22 to 26, SIC Press Officer Azhar Ghazali said in a statement today.

Entering its ninth edition this year, the prestigious 12-hour endurance race, which is one of only two 12-hour car endurance races in the world, will be held on August 30. Qualifying will be held on the preceding day on August 29.

This year’s race would be flagged off at 11.30am, which effectively means that at least four hours of the race would be run under the floodlights. Adding further challenge to the drivers and teams would be rain, which had been the cases in some of the previous races.

“Naturally, we wanted to provide more sessions for the competitors to practice for the big race. But, there are other events that we need to consider and allocate the track time for them,” Azhar said.

“Nevertheless, we believe that the sessions that we are providing for the competitors are adequate and we hope that all teams would make full use of the sessions to prepare their cars and drivers,” he added.

Charges for the free practice sessions had been fixed for RM300 per car and for a maximum of three drivers per car.

The sessions will be opened as well to all interested car owners, casual drivers and racing enthusiasts except for sessions that had been scheduled after August 20, which would be exclusively for MME competitors only.

“The reason why we decided to open the early sessions for other members of the public is that some teams are still undecided in competing and that they may want to evaluate their cars and drivers before making the big decision,” he said.

Submission of entries closes on August 15 and so far, SIC has received more than 30 entries.

For further details, contact the Press Officer Azhar Ghazali at 019 3837865.