Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race

2006 Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race logo

The Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race (formerly known as "Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race"), commonly known as MMER, is a 12 Hours endurance racing event held annually since 2000 at the Sepang International Circuit on late August as part of the Merdeka festivities in Malaysia.

The 2012 Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race will be part of the Japanese Super Taikyu Series.

Schedule

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.

2007 race was run on August 25, 2007 from 11:00am to 11:00pm. Once again Petronas Primax 3 sponsored the race. The race was won by Hong Leong-Kencana Racing with a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

Classes

2010 - Current

The race is divided into 3 classes

• GT Class for

   FIA GT2 FIA Article 257
   FIA GT3 and CUP cars FIA article 257A
   JAF : Supertaiku Cars (STX – ST1)

• Sports Production for

   FIA GT4 Cars (All cars complying with SRO Regulations)
   FIA Group B Cars as per FIA Article 256
   Sports Cars with Diesel Engine above 1900cc

• Touring Production for

   Group N Cars 1900cc and above as per FIA Article 254
   Group A cars 1900cc and above as per FIA Article 255
   Non FIA Homologated Touring Cars 1900cc and above (2,500 minimum annual production) as per FIA Article 277
   JAF Supertaiku Cars (ST2 – ST4)
   Touring/Saloon Cars with Diesel Engine above 1900cc

2009

The race is divided into 3 classes

• Open for modified racing cars.
• A1 for production supercars.
• A2 for production sports and saloon cars.

2000 - 2008

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.

History

1990-2000

In the late 90s, Malaysian auto manufacturer Proton used to organize a 300 km 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.

2001-2008

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.

The 2007 race has been made more interesting with more participation from foreign teams racing teams, namely J's Racing Lab with a Honda S2000 and Juniper Racing with a 911 GT3 RSR. Famous racing drivers such as former F1 and 24 Hours of Le Mans driver Hans-Joachim Stuck also participated in the race. Year 2007 also record the highest participation so far with 103 cars signing up for the race but only 77 makes it to the starting grid in accordance to the FIA circuit license granted to Sepang International Circuit.

In 2008, the race was won by Darryl O'Young, Mok Wing Sun and Alexander Nicholas Davison of Porsche Club Singapore. Their Porsche 997 RSR completed 308 laps.^[2]

Overall Winners

Year	Team	Drivers	Car	Laps
2011	Petronas Syntium Team	Nobuteru Taniguchi Masataka Yanagidai Dominic Ang	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	321
2010	Arrows Racing	T.Hammam Peter Kox C. Haase	Lamborghini LP560	315
2009	Petronas Syntium Team	T.Kataoka M.Orido Johan Adzmi	BMW Z4M Coupe	306
2008	Team Porsche Club Singapore	D.Nicholas Darryl O'Young Mok Wing Sun	Porsche 997 RSR	308
2007	Team Hong Leong-Kencana Racing	Mokhzani Mahathir Sven Herberger Lars Erik Nielsen	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	288
2006	Proton R3 Team	Tengku Djan Ley Damien French Faidzil Alang	Lotus Exige 300RR	271
2005	Proton R3 Amprex	Tengku Djan Ley Genji Hashimoto Tony Ricciardello	Lotus Exige 300RR	279
2004	Honda Malaysia Racing Team	Eddie Lew Hiroki Katoh Farriz Fauzy	Honda Civic 2.0 i-VTEC	265
2003	G1 Meritus	Eric Yeo Chin Tzer-Jinn Firhat Mohkzani	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	268
2002	Jaseri Racing	Nigel Albon T. Hamman Tommy Lee	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	262
2001	Team TVR	Jeffrey Wong Admi Sharhal Tommy Lee	TVR Chimaera	250
2000	Proton EON Racing Team	Jimmy Low Karamjit Singh Tommy Lee	Proton PERT	253

Trivia

• 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^[3].
• The 2001 MME 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.
• Honda Malaysia Racing Team started competing in the MME in 2003 and partnered together with Team Kunimitsu Racing of Japan. The team entered the race with a Honda Integra DC5. Team Kunimitsu Racing's president, Kunimitsu Takahashi who is also a former F1 driver, current chairman of the GT-Association (GTA) of Japan and the organizers of the Super GT Series, drove together with the team in 2003 and 2004. Mr. Kunimitsu is now the advisor to the Honda Malaysia Racing Team^[4].
• Hong Kong actor and stunt choreographer, Chin Kar-lok participated in the MMER in 2005 competing in class C with a Honda Civic.
• Malaysia racing wonder kid Jazeman Jaafar had become the youngest participant of MMER in 2007 at the age of 14.
• Team Porsche Club Singapore became the first foreign team to win the Merdeka Millennium Endurance in 2008.^[5]

References

1. ^ "BSA racing debut at MME". radicalextremesportscars.com. August 30, 2003. http://www.radicalextremesportscars.com/news_folder/mme/index.php. Retrieved 2008-07-30. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ Porsche Club Singapore Wins Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race
3. ^ "HMRT History". Honda Malaysia. http://www.honda.com.my/hmrt07/index.html. Retrieved 2008-07-30. ^{[dead link]}
4. ^ "2004 MME Review". Temple of VTEC Asia. August 2004. http://asia.vtec.net/article/MME2003Race/index.html. Retrieved 2008-07-30. 
5. ^ "Porsche Club Singapore Wins Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race". Sepang Circuit. http://www.sepangcircuit.com/news/sepang-circuits-porsche-club-singapore-wins-m. Retrieved 17 September 2011.