2-time champion Type R Racing Team has declared that the factory teams of Proton R3 Motorsports and Honda Malaysia Racing Team (HMRT) would be the team to watch at the 2013 Sepang 1000KM (S1K) at Sepang International Circuit this weekend. With Soh, Boy and Type R Racing winning the title twice including the inaugural event in 2009 when they had Tek Kean Kang as their third driver. Lai, a two-time Malaysian Super Series Supersixteen Champion and a two-time Sepang Drag Battle overall champion, helped the duo to win in 2011.
Last year, the trio finished third behind the two Proton R3 Motorsports entries – Syafiq Ali and Japan’s Super GT driver Morio Nitta in a Satria Neo and a Proton Preve, driven by James Veerapan and Masedenial Ali.
2012 champion Syafiq, the newly-crowned MSS Champion for the Malaysian Touring Car Challenge, returned to defend his crown with a new partner – top Japanese driver Takayuki Fujita and his trusted Satria Neo machine.
Proton R3 second entry would feature the partnership of James Veerapan with a new and more established partner – Malaysia’s Drift King and a two-time Sepang 12-Hour Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race (MMER) champion, Tengku Djan Ley.
HMRT, which is making its second appearance in the S1K with their Mugen-powered Honda Jazz machines, returned with a strong drivers line-up of former MMER champion Farriz Fauzy and Tengku Ezan Ley in car #26 and former Malaysia’s A1GP World Cup of Motorsports driver Aaron Lim partnering Eddie Lew – a two-time MSS champion as well as former overall and multiple class winners in the MMER.
Twenty-eight cars including a full-fledged Toyota Team Thailand team have registered for the race, which would be flagged off at 1pm on Saturday. Qualifying will be held tomorrow with all drivers required to clock their best lap times around the 5443-meter Formula 1 track.
Apart from the main race, the 2013 event would feature international races as its support races including the newly introduced single-seater Asia Cup, the exciting Toyota Yaris and Toyota Vios Ladies Challenge as well as the final rounds of the Asia Classic Car Challenge and the prestigious Asian Le Mans Series. Finishing it off with the grand S1K Fest that will happen at Mall Area, SIC.
CHAMPIONS 2009 – 2012
2012 – Shafiq Ali/Morio Nitta (Proton R3 Motorsports)
2011 – Boy Wong Yew Choong, Soh Kee Koon/Lai Wee Sing (Type R Racing)
2010 – Kenny Lee, Chris O’ Shannessy, T.W. Hsiao (Wing Hing Motorsports)
2009 – Boy Wong Yew Choong, Soh Kee Koon, Lai Wee Sing (Type R Racing)
