Honda Malaysia Racing Team (HMRT), once the dominating force of Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race (MMER), has clinched victory in their first Sepang 1000KM Race (S1K) after the Honda Jazz no 27 outperformed the other 27 cars at the Sepang International Circuit on Sunday.
The endurance race pitted 27 cars to complete 1000km on the track, which takes approx 8-9 hours. This year’s edition saw rivalry between two manufacturer’s teams, HMRT and Proton’s own R3, who had just swept both driver’s and manufacturer titles in this year’s Malaysia Super Series (MSS). However, luck was not on Proton’s side as their best finishing team of Syafiq Ali and Takayuki Fujita managed only fifth place in the Proton Satria Neo. Following the spectacular crash at the last round of the MSS, the Preve was restored to compete in S1K but mechanical gremlins on lap 23 saw the Preve out of contention early on.
In the end, it was the partnership of Eddie Lew, multiple race winner of MMER , and Aaron Lim, who is a former Malaysia A1GP driver, completed the 181-lap race in 8 hours 24 minutes 41.686 seconds; which bought the S1K championship title to HMRT. Finishing just 12 seconds back in second place was Fitra Era and Mark Darwin in a Proton Satria Neo from Tedco Racing. In third place and just 22 seconds away from the winning Honda Jazz was the Toyota Altis of Type R Racing. Also notable is the sole all-ladies team of Siti Shahkirah Shaharul and Brunei’s Siti Zirwatul Irdah Awang Adnin from Team Red Bull Rookies, who finished in 11th place in their Satria Neo. The race ended in 9:35pm, and only 16 cars made it to the chequered flag.
Our congratulations to HMRT for their victory in S1K. So if the adage of “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” applies here, will we see great promotions for the Alor Gajah assembled Honda Jazz in Malaysia?
SEPANG 1000KM 2013 – TOP 10 FINISHERS
