83 Entries To Fight for 77 places in MME
83 ENTRIES ALREADY CONFIRMED FOR 2005 MERDEKA MILLENNIUM ENDURANCE RACE
The sixth edition of the 12-hour Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race has so far received 83 entries which implies that the competitors have to go all out in qualifying as only 77 cars will be allowed to race on August 27 at Sepang Circuit.
“As stipulated under the regulations, the competitors will now have to go through qualifying to ensure their place on the final grid. Their places will be determined through a combined qualifying time of all the three drivers,” says Ahmad Mustafa, General Manager of Sepang International Circuit and event director for the 2005 Merdeka Millennium Endurance race.
Of the 83 entries, eight will compete in the open class while 15 others have registered under Class A for production cars above 1900cc. Class B, which groups the cars between 1601cc and 1900cc, has the biggest entry with 33 cars, while another 27 cars are registered for Class C, for cars below 1600cc.
The regulations state that a maximum of 25 cars would be allowed from a combined A and the open class. For Class B and C, each category will be allowed a maximum of 26 cars. That will bring a total of 77 cars to the starting grid as permitted by the FIA license issued for Sepang Circuit.
The battle in the open class would again be another attempt to take top honours by former Japan GT driver Genji Hashimoto of Amprex Motorsports, who has failed in three previous attempts despite starting as top favourite.
Honda Racing Malaysia will again be featuring their 2000cc Honda Civic DOHC I-VTEC racing machines and their Japanese drivers of Hiroki Katoh, Ryo Michigami and Kunimitsu Takahashi to partner Malaysia’s top drivers Eddie Lew, Tommy Lee and Farriz to defend their overall title and to win Class A again.
The most prominent entry for Class B would be the Gates Racing Team, which would be featuring four cars and nine top drivers from Australia in the first three cars. The fourth car will be led by Japan’s Yasuhiro Morita, who won the class last year.
In Class C, defending champion Wong Yew Choong, Soh Kee Koon and Tew Ban Yeap of the Supertune Motorsports Racing Team with their enhanced Honda Civic EK9 will again start as favourites in the battle of the Honda Civics.
“The total number of entries could still increase as we are still opened for registration until next week,” said Ahmad, adding that the rule, however, stipulates that any entries after the closing date of August 16 will be slapped with an additional RM1,000 late penalty.
“We just have to see, but based on the response and enquiries that we have had over the past week, we expect be more entries to come in,” said Ahmad, adding that the non-qualifiers would have a refund of their registration fees.
The normal registration fees for the open class and those in Class A is RM3500. For Class B, competitors have to pay an entry fee of RM3000 per car while the charges for Class C is RM2500 per car.
Qualifying will be held on August 26 with each of the three drivers taking turns to clock their fastest lap time around the 5.543km track for a combined time. The race will be flagged off at 11am the following day on August 27.
After an entry of 55 cars in its debut year, the Merdeka Millennium Endurance race had a full grid of 77 entries in the following year. The biggest entry was in 2003 when it had 104 entries. Last year, the organisers decided to close registration after 77 cars; which led to the frustration of many late-comers.
Hailed as Asia’s Biggest Race and organised as part of Malaysia’s National Day celebrations, the Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race is a test of stamina and endurance where three drivers take turns to drive their car to record the highest number of laps within a grueling 12-hour challenge.
