This month’s endurance race, the Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race 2012 will see Nexus Racing embarking on a brand new challenge, when it begins its assault to win the race. The team enters the series, having won the class’ title in 2011 in 1st position and a 7th place overall with a clear 1.5-hour lead over its closest competitor.
With one of the most competitive cars available, the Aston Martin GT4, Nexus Racing goes into the race at the top-level of sports car racing and will be up against internationally and local Malaysian factory works teams challenging for overall honours. And, as well as acquiring a car that has the potential to win, Nexus Racing has three equally capable drivers: Datuk Adrian Henry D’Silva, Daniel Bilski and Fahrizal Hasan.
Having driven for Nexus Racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Series (PCCA), Datuk Adrian continues for a second season and brings with him a sports car and endurance-racing heritage that spans 6 years of experience. As well as PCCA, his experience includes seasons in Honda Integra Cup, Asian Touring Car Series and the GT4 Asia Series.
The Aston Martin GT4 race car has been at the team’s technical facility since the last race with the time spent building and preparing the car in readiness for this endurance race. The three drivers will get their first taste behind the wheel this weekend in pre trials. Therefore, the team aims to make the most of the pre-event test sessions.
Nexus Racing is proud to be sponsored for the 2nd time by Jaeger-LeCoultre who is the official luxury timepiece for Aston Martin. Jaeger-LeCoultre and Aston Martin, Sharing common values of integrity, the pursuit of excellence and avant-garde spirit, came together to renew historic ties. Their paths have already met in the 1920s.
At that time, Edmond Jaeger was creating an illustrious name for the company in the area of precision instruments in the automotive field. Destined to meet again, the reference in fine watch making and the best in performance in cars have decided to develop a collection of timepieces over several years. The first watch to be presented in 2005 is a gentleman’s watch that clothes precision engineering in a design inspired by a rich past. It draws inspiration from Aston Martin’s remarkable automobile features and understated design and from Jaeger-LeCoultre’s legendary performance model, the Memovox 1965.
Team Quotes:
Datuk Adrian “We have been working closely with the Aston Martin factory in UK to get the best from the car and our engineers are confident of its reliability and its ability to conquer the straights and corners. It would be great to have a podium result again this year and our team is working overtime to get everything in place for the 31st weekend and I’m encouraged by what’s been achieved so far.
Daniel Bilski “For me, this will be my first time competing with Nexus Racing and it’s a very interesting challenge. This year, my success depends on the success of my team mates.” I am also very excited with the performance of the Aston GT4 and I am starting to get ‘that feeling’ again. It’s so important for a driver’s motivation to be excited and constantly challenged and I certainly feel this is going to be the case this year!”
Fahrizal Hasan “I have been training very hard, so from the fitness point of view I know I’m in good shape. Even so, it’s a big challenge to prepare for a 12-hour race and I think it will be important to take it step-by step-to build up through the test days so we are all comfortable when race day arrives.”
Tong Han Wey (Technical Director and Head of Engineering) “Even as last year’s Champions, it will still be a challenge as there are new cars and more importantly works teams with large budgets and factory engineering to assist. Nexus Racing is a 100% Malaysian race team and we have a great team” The team has worked very hard in the past few weeks to prepare for what we have ahead of us. It has been and I am sure will continue to be for the next few months, a steep learning curve. But, as our racing history has shown, we like a challenge and I’m confident that we’ll rise to it with a podium finish.”
