Porsche Club Singapore Win Mme

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 31 (Bernama) -- Team Porsche Club Singapore became the first foreign team to win the open class category at the 9th Merdeka Millennium Endurance (MME) race after beating off a stiff challenge from defending champions Kencana Hong Leong Racing Team at the Sepang International Circuit Saturday.

Flagged off by Motorsports Commission of Malaysia (MCM) chairman Datuk Azman Yahya at 11.50am, the partnership of Mok Weng Sun, Alexander Nicolas Davison and Daryl O Young started from pole position but had to play second fiddle to the defending champions until the fifth hour before taking over the lead.

Team Porsche did not look back after that and started edging away from the team of Sven Herberger, Lars Erik Nielsen, and Mokhzani Mahathir and by the seventh hour, Team Porsche Club Singapore had opened a one-lap advantage over their rivals and eventually finished the race in stylish fashion by setting a new record of 308 laps within the 12-hour duration.

Driving identical Porsche 997 RSR machines, the team from Singapore and Kencana Hong Leong Racing Team made the 9th edition of the MME a private battle between them as their rivals simply could not match their speed and acceleration. Kencana Hong Leong finished with 304 laps.

The Australian partnership of David Wall, Barton Mower and Damien Flack finished third in their Porsche 996-RSR with 291 laps.

Meanwhile, in Class A (production cars above 1900cc), Japanese trio Junichi Umemoto, Yoshiharu Kusumoto, and Hideo Kubota of Js Racing Team clinched the title while Class B (cars between 1601cc and 1900cc) was topped by the trio from Proton R3 Motorsports driven by Faidzil Alang Abdul Rahman, Mohd Hafizy Hafiz and Syafiq Ali of Proton R3 Team.

The battle for Class C for cars below 1600cc was topped by the partnership of Khairul Zaman Abdul Rahman, Perajun Krishnan and Mohamad Akmal Adekkapachi of Lochi Racing Team.

CLASS WINNERS:

Class O (Open class):

1. Mok Weng Sun Alexander Nicolas Davison, Daryl O Young (Porsche Club Singapore)

2. Sven Herberger Mokhzani Mahathir, & Lars Erik Nielsen (Porsche 997 RSR

3. David Wall, Barton Mower, Damien Flack (Porsche 996-RSR)



Class A (Production cars above 1900cc):

1. Junichi Umemoto, Yoshiharu Kusumoto, Hideo Kubota (Js Racing)

2. Mark Eddy, Grant Johnson, Dean Flore (Danville Motorsports)

3. Lai Wee Sing, Ahmad Faez Yahya, Brian Whilock (R-Engineering)



Class B (Production Cars between 1601cc and 1900cc):

1. Hafizi Hafiz, Faidzil Alang Abdul Rahman, Syafiq Ali (Proton R3)



Class C (Production Cars below 1600cc):

2. Perajun Krishan, Mohd Akmal Adekkapachi, Khairul Zaman Rahman (Lochi Racing)

-- BERNAMA