GOOD RESPONSE FROM FOREIGN DRIVERS FOR MERDEKA ENDURANCE RACE 2005
GOOD RESPONSE FROM FOREIGN DRIVERS FOR MERDEKA ENDURANCE RACE 2005
With just over a month to go before the sixth Merdeka Millennium Endurance race, a total of 33 teams have confirmed their participation in the 12-hour race, which will be held at Sepang Circuit on August 27.
“The response has been encouraging especially from the international drivers. We should see another full grid of 77 cars and 231 drivers again this year,” says Ahmad Mustafa, General Manager of Sepang International Circuit.
Ahmad, who is the event director, said the 2005 edition should see a large participation of top drivers from Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, who were among the firsts to sign up for the race.
“Unfortunately, I am unable to disclose their names now as the teams want to formally announce their drivers line-up to media on their own. And, we would like to respect their wishes,” he added.
Nevertheless, defending champion Honda Malaysia Racing had recently announced that they would be fielding a six-man team of three Japan GT drivers and three Malaysian drivers in their bid to retain their title.
Driving a production based Honda Civic 2.0 DOHC I-VTEC, Japan GT driver Hiroki Katoh and Malaysian drivers Eddie Lew and Farriz Fauzy stunned the more powerful modified cars to take the overall title last year for the Honda team. The other entry of Kunimitsu Takahashi, Hidetoshi Matsusada and Tommy Lee took third place.
Introduced in 2000 to promote Malaysian motorsports and as part of the National Day celebrations, the MME is a test of man, of machine, of stamina and staying power as the drivers – three to a car – take turns to complete as many laps as possible around the 5.543-km F1 track within 12 grueling hours.
Previous events showed that at least one third of the grid would pre-maturely end their race before the stipulated 12 hours as their machines or drivers failed the endurance and perseverance test.
Following last year’s format, the 2005 Merdeka Millennium Endurance race would be contested in four different categories with the open class as the most challenging and highly competitive with all the allowed modifications. Class A will group cars above 1900cc while Class B will group cars between 1601cc to 1900cc. Class C will be for cars under 1600cc.
Qualifying will be held on August 26 and only 77 best qualifiers would be entered for the actual race, which would be flagged off at 11am on the following day on Saturday, August 27, 2005.
Ahmad said the 2005 race would be organized ahead of the National Day on August 27 to take advantage of the weekend to allow racing fans to join in the fun and excitement at the carnival-like event.
The closing date for registration has been set on August 16 and Ahmad advised the teams to register early.
Registration fees for Class A and the open class is RM3,500 while for Class B competitors is RM3000. Fees for Class C competitors is RM2,500.
The event offers prizes worth more than RM200,000 in cash and kind. But, it would be the coveted title as champions of Malaysia’s most prestigious racing event as the strongest driving force among the competitors.
