KUALA LUMPUR: Sepang International Circuit (SIC) is determined to turn around the fortunes of a number of their races which have been running at a loss over the years.
The main events in question are the Malaysia Championship Series (MCS), Sepang 1000 kilometres (S1K) - which are touring car competitions - as well as the Malaysia Superbike Championships (MSBK) which are considered national championships in their respective disciplines.
SIC chief executive officer Azhan Shafriman Hanif said spectator turnouts for the three events, especially the car races, have been poor over the years which has subsequently made it tough to attract sponsors.
"Our operating costs (to maintain circuit) increase year-on-year but we have more or less been able to stabilise our finances following the rental rates increase implemented earlier this year (April)," said Shafriman when met in Sepang yesterday.
"We are actually doing quite well in terms of rental of the track and other facilities as well as hosting MotoGP (Malaysian Grand Prix).
"The only events we are trying to stabilise are the national championships we organise - MCS, MSBK and S1K.
"These events are currently running at a loss. All this while these events have been supported by the government through grants. Without the grants we would be really in the red.
"At the end of the day, we are a company and we have to make sure everything we do is positive. Otherwise the board and the ministry will question why we are still doing this.
"The reason we are organising these events (national championships) is to help hoost motorsports development because without them there would be less interest in motorsports.
"But we cannot depend on government grants forever. We are looking at rebranding these events to help bring in more spectators and hopefully secure more sponsors to reduce dependence on grants."
SIC reports to both the Youth and Sports Ministry as well as the Ministry of Finance.
Shafriman added that SIC could look to work together with Malaysia Speed Festival (MSF) to boost interest in the three events.
MSF, led by principal Adian Yein Khalid, organises a number of popular series for both cars and bikes in Malaysia. The Merdeka Race they organised at Sepang recently attracted roughly 6,000 spectators which is a respectable number for a domestic race.
"MSF are doing quite well actually, they are running very low cost races and there are definitely one or two things we can learn from them," said Shafriman.
"Especially in terms of how they are able to attract a crowd, you can see that MSF has a good following.
"We will try to sit down and discuss with Adian, perhaps we can run a cross collaboration promotion with them as a number of the drivers and riders compete in both (MSF and SIC) series."