BATU KAWAN: The first day of racing for round three of the Toyota Vios Challenge got off to an exciting and action-packed start with close racing action taking place at the 1.56km Batu Kawan Stadium street circuit in Penang earlier today (Saturday).
In the Super Sporting class, series leader Boy Wong stormed to victory in race one of the third round, finishing ahead of Team Dream Chaser’s Brendan Paul Anthony and Team Nanoplus experienced driver Keifli Othman.
Wong made the most of his pole position to lead into the first corner and was able to steer clear of the jostling behind him which resulted in two cars retiring from the race.
Fighting for second position, Brendan and Kegani Racing Team’s Kenny Lee were side by side into the first corner. Lee found himself squeezed into the wall and rebounded back in front of teammate William Ho. This allowed Team Nanoplus drivers Keifli Othman and Eddie Liew to get into third and fourth positions with Laser Motor Racing’s Alif Mohamed Hamdan in fifth.
“I had an excellent start and had the inside line going into the first corner. I’m not quite sure what happened but then I suddenly realised that Lee went into the wall,” said Brendan.
“The racing conditions were extremely difficult coupled with the searing heat.”
For Keifli, third placing on the podium was God-sent given the fact he had started from the middle of the grid and had to push his damaged car to its limits after sustaining damage during the official practice session on Friday.
“With the collision happening just right in front of me, I was fortunate to have had a clear path through to continue an incident-free race,” said Keifli.
In the sporting class, just seven laps into the 22-lap race, the top five quickest qualifiers were knocked out of contention in what was a dramatic start to the race.
Brendan Lim, who took pole position, made the best of a good start to lead the race ahead of Kenneth Koh, 15-year-old Hayden Haikal, Dato’ Ken Foo Kwok Hsing and Shukri Yahaya.
Brendan initially built up a 1.5s gap, but as his pace slowed, Koh attempted to overtake twice, the first tearing into Brendan’s rear bumper while the second pushing him into the concrete barrier.
That gave Hayden, Foo and Shukri the opportunity to jostle for the top three positions, but contact between Shukri and Foo eventually sent both cars into the concrete barrier which took Hayden out in the process.
The safety car was brought on for five laps and after the carnage was cleared, it was Distinctive Model’s Clement Yeo who took the lead from sixth place, followed by Team Nanoplus driver Patrick Tam and ST Wangan Racing Team’s Eric Yong.
“I started from eighth on the grid and I had a good start that got me to sixth,” said Clement. “With so much action at the front of the grid, I had a gut feeling something was going to happen and I just kept a safe distance. It was certainly a race with an unexpected result.”
In the promotional class, the celebrities were no less competitive with actress Diana Danielle clinching victory in the 20-lap race ahead of television presenter and comedian Nabil Ahmad and singer Akim Ahmad.
The race however, finished behind the safety car after two incidents on track.
“I am just so blessed to have won today’s race, given the fierce competition behind me from Nabil and Aiman,” said Diana.
“To be honest, I was more concerned about Aiman because he’s quick and he has the tendency to sneak up from behind, but unfortunately he clipped the wall and had to retire from the race.”
More than 40 racers are competing in Round 3 of the Toyota Vios Challenge this weekend which consists of two races and divided into three categories: The promotional class is for local celebrities, with the sporting class for budding amateurs and super sporting for professional drivers. Race two will take place tomorrow (Sunday).
RESULTS
SUPER SPORTING CLASS
1. Boy Wong (St Wangan Racing Team)
2. Brendan Paul Anthony (Dream Chaser)
3. Keifli Othman (Team Nanoplus)
4. Eddie Liew (Team Nanoplus)
5. Alif Mohamed Hamdan (Laser Motor Racing)
SPORTING CLASS
1. Clement Yeo (Distinctive Model)
2. Patrick Tam (Team Nanoplus)
3. Eric Yong (St Wangan Racing Team)
4. Lim Chun Beng (Team Fokus Tetap)
5. Shawn Lee
PROMOTIONAL CLASS
1. Diana Danielle
2. Nabil Ahmad
3. Akim Ahmad
4. Khai Bahar
5. Janna Nick