KUALA LUMPUR: HI-REV Dream Chaser racing team will be looking to execute their plans to perfection and secure their maiden Sepang 1000 kilometres (S1K) title when the event begins at its namesake track tomorrow.
Dream Chaser team principal CY Ong is aware of a whole list of issues that could potentially go wrong in the nine-hour endurance race and has prepared his cars and drivers accordingly.
"We build new engines for each race and since this is an endurance race we have to run them on a slightly 'safer mode' for S1K, lets put it that way," said CY recently.
"S1K is almost nine hours of non-stop racing and if it doesn't rain, the track temperatures at Sepang can go as high as 50 to 60 degrees.
"We will make adjustments to the engines' ECU settings, compression and also look at the camshaft profiles.
"In shorter races we usually run the engines at higher RPM's but for S1K we will drop it just a little bit to be safe, but not too safe."
Dream Chaser will be fielding two cars in the MTC class for S1K - a Suzuki Swift piloted by Hayden Haikal, Rahul Mayer and Daim Hishammudin as well as a Honda City that will be driven by Lee Wai Cong, Fitra Eri as well as Aaron Haikal, who is Hayden's younger brother.
The Swift, which has won the Malaysia Championship Series (MCS) title three years in a row now (2022-2024), as well as the City will both run 1.6 litre engines with sequential gearboxes and use HI-REV lubricants.
CY believes is imperative that his team treads with relative caution until the business end of the race - the final four hours.
"Our strategy for the first four hours will be to play it safe and perhaps push to about 90 cent of the cars' potential," said CY.
"The last four hours is traditionally when all the big teams will fight it out and see who wins the race."
Besides Dream Chaser, who came in second last year, Proton R3 are also expected to be among the contenders for the S1K title.
The factory squad are making their comeback this season after a five-year hiatus. They previously won the S1K title five times in 2012, 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
S1K begins with the practice sessions tomorrow (Nov 21) followed by qualifying on Friday (Nov 22). The race will be held on Saturday (Nov 23). Entry to the granstands is free.