Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race

The Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race, commonly known as MME, 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.

chedule

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

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 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.

2001-2007

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 [] .
* 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.

External links

Official web site

* [http://www.getpaidtoblog.info/?p=66 Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race 2007 Video]
* [http://www.malaysiangp.com.my/motorsports/mme/default.asp Official Homepage within the Sepang International Circuit website]
* [http://www.malaysianmotorsports.com Malaysian Motorsports]
* [http://www.amprexmotorsport.com/home.asp Amprex Motorsports]
* [http://www.honda.net.my/hmrt06/index.htm Honda Malaysia Racing Team]
* [http://www.racerallyresearch.com Proton R3 Racing]
* [http://www.petmos.com.my/index.php Petronas Motorsport]

ee also

* 24 Hours of Le Mans
* 1000km of Le Mans
* Le Mans Series (formerly Le Mans Endurance Series)
* Japan Le Mans Challenge

References