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Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race is an annual 12 Hours endurance motorsport event held at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia in late August as part of the Merdeka festivities.
The 2006 race was run on August 27 2006 from 12:07am to 12:07pm. In 2006 the race was sponsored by Petronas Primax 3 and it was won by the Proton R3 Racing Team with their Lotus Exige 300RR.
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The race is divided into 4 classes:
- Open for modified racing cars.
- A for production road cars with engine capacity exceeding 2000cc.
- B for production road cars with engine capacity exceeding 1600cc.
- C for production road cars with engine capacity below 1600cc.
In the late 90s, Malaysian auto manufacturer Proton used to organize a 500km race at Shah Alam circuit for local racers racing with Protons, to celebrate Merdeka in Malaysia. When Sepang International Circuit was built the race was shifted to the F1 circuit, with the winners of the race entitled to a new Proton road car.
But after the 1999 race, a dispute happened between Proton and Sepang International Circuit, resulting in Proton's sponsorship withdrawal. Sepang therefore decided to host a replacement race by itself and started the Merdeka Millennium 12 Hours Endurance Race in 2000. The race also opened up for non-Proton entries.
The inaugural race was won by the Proton EON Racing Team (PERT) with Jimmy Low, Karamjit Singh and Tommy Lee driving, beating off the challenge from TVR Racing who ran Malaysian F1 driver Alex Yoong.
In 2001, TVR Racing won the race with Jeffery Wong, Tommy Lee and Admi Shahrul in a TVR Chimaera.
In 2002, Amprex Motorsport entered the Japan GT300 spec Mazda RX-7 machine, with crack Hong Kong driver Charles Kwan and Kevin Wong as its drivers. But the car failed to finish the race. Nigel Albon, Tommy Lee and T. Hamman won in their Porsche 911 GT3.
In 2003, the race got more serious with BSA Racing entering a Radical SR3 and a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup with Wolf Henzler as its lead driver, while Amprex Motorsport entered the BMW M3 GT for Charles Kwan, Matthew Marsh and Genji Hashimoto. Alex Yoong was also back with Jaseri Racing. But in the end unfancied G1-Meritus won the race after outlasting its rivals, with Eric Yeo, Firhat Mohkzani and Chin Tzer-Jinn driving their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car serenely to victory after completing 268 laps. [1]
In 2004, Amprex Motorsport, armed with the latest ACO/FIA GT1 spec Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT racer, totally dominated proceedings as its drivers set laps of 2:09s around the circuit. But the car brokedown and Honda Malaysia Racing Team, with Eddie Lew, Farriz Fauzy and Super GT driver Hiroki Katoh, took the top step of the podium, despite running in class A.
The 2005 edition was dominated by a joint effort between Amprex Motorsport and Proton R3 Racing, together they operated the team and their Lotus Exige 300RR won outright, completing 279 laps.
In 2006, Amprex Motorsport decided to bring back the Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT for the race but it was crippled in a practice accident, allowing Proton R3 Racing's Lotus Exige 300RR a clear run to victory number 2, completing 271 laps in the process. Faidzil Alang, Australian Damien French and Tengku Djan Ley shared the driving duties.
- 2006 Tengku Djan Ley/Damien French/Faidzil Alang (Lotus Exige 300RR)
- 2005 Tengku Djan Ley/Genji Hashimoto/Tony Ricciardello (Lotus Exige 300RR)
- 2004 Eddie Lew/Hiroki Katoh/Farriz Fauzy (Honda Civic 2.0 i-VTEC)
- 2003 Eric Yeo/Chin Tzer-Jinn/Firhat Mohkzani (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup)
- 2002 Nigel Albon/Tommy Lee/T. Hamman (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup)
- 2001 Jeffrey Wong/Admi Sharhal/Tommy Lee (TVR Chimaera)
- 2000 Jimmy Low/Karamjit Singh/Tommy Lee (Proton PERT)
- Tommy Lee is the only driver to have won the Open class three times. He raced for three different teams for the wins: PERT, TVR and Jaseri Racing.
- The Honda Malaysia Racing Team (HMRT) has won class A four times in a row since 2003, it also won the race overall in 2004. [2]
- The 2001 MMER witnessed the entry form a private high school, Pay Fong High School that joined the race in the name of charity. All the contributions from the sponsors were for charity purposes.
- Kunimitsu Takahashi (高橋國光), former F1 driver and current chairman of the GT-Association (GTA) of Japan, the organizers of the Super GT Series, has also participated in the MMER backed by his own GTA crew.