Proton R3 Takes Pole at Merdeka Millennium Endurance 2006
Saturday, 26 August 2006 – Defending champions Proton R3 Racing will have a perfect start to their race at the Petronas Primax 3 Merdeka Millennium Endurance 2006 after securing pole position in qualifying at Sepang Circuit yesterday.
Driving an enhanced Lotus Exige 300RR, the partnership of Tengku Djan Ley Tengku Mahaleel, Faidzil Alang and Australian Damien French clocked an aggregate time of 2 minutes 27.098 seconds to outpace 84 other cars in the seventh edition of Sepang’s prestigious 12-hour endurance race.
However, Tengku Djan was quite modest, stating that the race is still very open, and that anyone can win, “Until half of the 12-hour race had been completed, no team could claim that they were in a better position than the others.
“We can only evaluate our position and the positions of the other teams after the sixth hour. Then, only we can make any realistic prediction,” says Djan, who has had his fair share of misfortunes in the MME that goes back to year 2000.
Amprex Motorsports had their own bad hard luck story too – The team, featuring top Japanese drivers Genji Hashimoto, Takashi Inoue and Akira Hirakawa – will miss out tomorrow’s race after Hashimoto crashed at Turn 1 following an accident between his Lamborghini Murceilago and Team Hayashi’s Porsche GT3.
Proton R3 will be joined on the front row by the trio from Thailand – Kamasuta Apathon, Piti Bhakdi and Supaphong Grant who had an aggregate time of 2 minutes 35.187s in their Mitsubishi Evo 5.
2003 overall winner comprising Firhat Mokhzani, Chin Tzer Jinn and Eric Yeo, who drove a Nissan Skyline R34G prepared by SHIFT Race Car Engineering from Japan clocked the third fastest aggregate time of 2 minutes 37.056 seconds.
The race will be flagged off at midnight Saturday by Malaysia Motorsports Commission Chairman Datuk Azman Yahya.
TOP TEN QUALIFIERS
(Aggregate time of 3 drivers)
1 Tengku Djan Ley/Faidzil Alang/Damien French (Lotus Exige 300RR) 2:27.098s
2. Kamasuta Apathon/Piti Bhakdi/Supaphong Grant (Mitsubishi Evo 5) 2:35.187s
3. Chin Tzer Jinn/Firhat Mokhzani/Eric Yeo (Nissan Skyline R34) 2:37.056s
4. Mokhzani Mahathir/Tommy Lee/Sven Herberger (Porsche GT3 Cup) 2:37.403s
5. Ian Ross Geekie/Dilantha Malagamuwa/ Nick Thomas (Porsche GT3) 2:38.193s
6. Ian Lee/Leonardo Tefinkjian/Rhommell Singh (Honda Integra DC2) 2:38.678s
7. Hiroki Katoh/Farriz Fauzy/Eddie Lew (Honda Civic) 2:39.002s
8. Mok Seng Sun/Tan Ian Mao/Ringo Chong (Porsche GT3) 2:40.155s
9. Alan Tan/Chris Tan/Ron Lim (Honda Integra DC2) 2:41.678s
10. Choo Yong Choon/Lau Seng Kiat/Siah Woei Pyng (Satria GTI) 2:41.935s
