The Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival Vios Challenge returns for its newest instalment with Season 5, for which Round 1 has been held on the Sepang International Circuit.
Saturday noticed the operating of Race 1, which noticed the present of brilliance by young drivers within the elite and beginner racer lessons. As earlier than, the Super Sporting and Sporting classes for the aforementioned lessons of racers have been joined by the Promotional class for celebrities, together with the recently-introduced Rookie class that includes promising young talent rising from the likes of simulator and kart racing.
The Super Sporting class for elite drivers noticed veteran driver Eddie Liew make the most effective of his fourth-positioned beginning place, making brief work of attending to the entrance of the pack to guide the category in Race 2 from begin to end. Situated behind Liew’s commanding drive in Race 2 was a battle for the remaining podium positions between at least 5 drivers, the place the jostling for monitor place enabled Liew to increase his result in as massive as 10 seconds forward of the chasing pack.
Winner of this weekend’s Race 1, Hayden Haikal of Axle Motorsports was in battle for second place with teammate Boy Wong, together with Fariqe Hairuman and Amer Harris of M7 Japan Project Team in addition to Ady Rahimy of 23 Motors and Clement Yeo of Distinctive Model.
The battling pack of 5 noticed contact on monitor, which resulted in all 5 put out of podium competition. This yielded a bonus for Mitchell Cheah of Prima Pearl TD Racing Team, who would go on to seize a second-place end, adopted by Freddie Ang of Telagamas Toyota for the ultimate Super Sporting podium spot in P3.
In the Rookie class for young drivers, 18-yr-outdated Sharique Zulqarinain accomplished the opening spherical of Season 5 with again-to-again podium finishes, capping his second-positioned end in Race 1 with victory in Race 2. Following simply behind was 20-yr-outdated Muizz Musyaffa, and the Rookie-class podium was rounded out by 19-yr-outdated Muhammad Hamdany Abdul Hamid.
“I had a really bad start in Race 2 and I was honestly not filled with hope but throughout the race I remembered what my mechanics and dad had told me which was to just keep a cool head and have fun,” mentioned Sharique. “I was just trying to set a consistent time on every lap and in the process I began overtaking other competitors. From then on, it was just a job of maintaining my pace,” the rookie Race 2 winner mentioned.
Historically sporting the biggest discipline of the Malaysian Vios Challenge, the Sporting class for beginner racers in Season 5 was no totally different, this time that includes a category of 20 racers. Here, Race 2 victory went to Bradley Benedict Anthony of Crestmax Motorsports, who was finally categorized winner of the second Sporting class race of the weekend, adopted by Kenneth Koh of Panglima City Racing Team and Abdul Miqail of 23 Motors in second and third place, respectively.
The closing Sporting class classification was not the preliminary order on the end line, as Season 4 Rookie and Gazoo Racing Young Talent Development alum Nquib Azlan was first to the chequered flag. The order didn’t stand, as Naquib was handed a 30-second penalty, which dropped him to P7 within the general Sporting class race outcome.
In the Promotional class for native personalities, actor and podium common Shukri Yahaya took the win in Race 2, capping his Season 5 begin with one other podium end following his clinching of second place in Race 1. Actor Zizan Razak put in a outstanding efficiency, having began in final place and drove his method to a second-place end within the 18-lap race. Completing the rostrum finishers was presenter, Nabil Ahmad.
Zizan and Shukri emerge from the opening spherical of Season 5 stage on factors, a results of each drivers producing an identical outcomes over every of the 2 races over the weekend – a race win and a second-place end apiece. Zizan began Race 2 from P6 on the grid, although a spin on the opening lap meant he was dropped to the again of Promotional discipline, earlier than he picked his means by means of to the eventual P2 end.
“It’s something that has interested me since I was very young,” mentioned Zizan. “As my entertainment career progressed it slowly allowed me to begin venturing into track days, taking up karting and even competing in karts,” he mentioned. Zizan finally realised that the shortage of monitor time was a limiting think about his driving, which led him in spend money on a simulator for added apply, the actor defined.
Onwards from this race weekend, the following spherical of the Toyota Gazoo Racing competition and Vios Challenge is at the moment scheduled for June, throughout which Toyota hopes that circumstances will as soon as once more allow the secure invitation of the general public after two seasons of closed-door operating as a result of Covid-19 pandemic.
