RACING TO VICTORY PST wins at 24 Hours of Tokachi

By Derryn Wong

AFTER THE RECENT excitement of LeMans 2008, endurance racing fans in the Far East haven’t had much rest from the action with the Super Taikyu Endurance Series on-going season.

The Petronas Syntium Team from Malaysia have been going from strength to strength with their latest result in the fourth round of the series at Tokachi. The 1-2 finish is a first for the team in a full 24 hour race in the STES. Just as impressive is the fact that it makes a hat-trick of 1-2 finishes after the rounds at Sendai and Fuji.

Tokachi is also a full 24 hour race and just as grueling as internationally acclaimed endurance races like the 24 Hours of LeMans or Sebring. Earlier rounds of the championship were shorter, four-hour races, just as in the American LeMans Series.

PST’s BMW Z4M Coupe racing machines #28 and #50 qualified in the front two rows at first and third respectively. #28 was driven by Nobuteru Taniguchi and Hiroki Yoshida along with guest driver Manabu Oridu, whose vast experience includes racing in FIA GT and LeMans 24 Hours. Malaysian Farique Hairuman’s Car #50 lined up third, with the regular line-up of Masataka Yanagida and Tatsuya Kataoka making it business as usual for them.

Some drama ensued after some entanglements taking place in different car classes and the safety car came out twice which unfortunately eliminated the lead built up by both teams in their cars. Adding to the conditions was intermittent rain that fell during the night, which is always a challenge because of standing water and temperature drop.

Despite the tricky conditions, both cars ran trouble-free to the finish line although some trip ups by #28 meant that #50 was able to take the lead for a well-deserved 1-2 finish after 637 laps, 1,440 minutes, 28 pit stops and more than 3,000 kilometers. The win also means Hairuman is the first Malaysian to be victorious in an international endurance race. He said, “The 24hours of Tokachi is undoubtedly the most difficult, physically challenging and emotionally draining race for every race car driver. We had a difficult race last year and did not expect to be any different this year. However, the team did an amazing job to work through all the problems in the pre-race testing and practice sessions to make sure the car was in perfect working order, which it was. They did a great job and deserve as much credit! to my teammates Yanagida and Kataoka, who both drove a brilliant race.

David Wong, Team Principal of PST said, “As the highlight of the Super Taikyu Endurance Series season, the 24hours of Tokachi race is also the most difficult and challenging, in every sense of the word, not just for the drivers but every single person on the team. And for us to come away with a win is a fantastic achievement for the team. The win was made even sweeter as we also achieved a landmark with a historic 1-2 result.”