This year’s Season 7 of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Vios Challenge seems to be characterized by wet conditions in the first round as well as the second round. On day 2 of the second round over the weekend, heavy rain with a thunderstorm delayed the start of the race for up to 30 minutes.
Super Sporting Class
As a result, participants in the Super Sporting (for professionals and veteran drivers) and Rookie Class (for young drivers) started the 20-lap race behind the Safety Car when conditions eased. With a grid format that reversed the finishing order of Race 1, the previous day’s winner, Amer Harris, started from 6th position, followed by Freddie Ang in 5th, Mitchell Cheah in 4th, and Hayden Haikal in 3rd.
Brothers Naquib Azlan and Nabil Azlan, both graduates of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Young Talent Development Program in Malaysia, started in second and first position, respectively.
With the Safety Car leaving the track after 3 laps, the race was one and Wheelcorp’s Nabil wasted no time to secure the lead with Axle Sports’ Naquib losing track position to TD Racing’s Hayden for second place. A mistake by Nabil a lap later, however, let Hayden, Prima Pearl TD Racing’s Cheah and Telegamas Toyota’s Ang through dropping Nabil to 4th position.
As Hayden retained the lead, the battle for 2nd place intensified between Cheah and Ang for 6 laps, and after several attempts, Ang finally managed to pass the former in pursuit of the lead. The positions remained unchanged to the chequered flag with Hayden taking victory ahead of Ang in second, and Cheah in third place.
“I’d like to thank everyone who made this happen… it was basically trying to get used to the car over practice and qualifying. I struggled a bit in the first race but today’s wet weather conditions helped me a lot. I like the rain and hopefully, I will be back for Round 3,” said Hayden who was making his return to the Vios Challenge after missing out on Round 1.
Sporting Class
In the Sporting Class for amateurs, former Rookie Class driver Lew concluded Round 2 with dominant double race wins. Driving for BAE Racing by ES Yang, Lew finished the 20-lap race around the 2.706-km North Track at the Petronas Sepang International Circuit 4.8 seconds ahead of PCM Group Racing Team’s Kenneth Koh and 16-year old Thai driver Panithan Rakpaibulsombut representing RUK Team Nexzter PMC 52.
The race began with Race Rally KL’s Shafiq Samsudin capitalizing on an early mistake by race leader Hiewa Racing Team’s Choo Yong Choon to storm into the lead with a 2.3 second advantage. Shafiq’s lead however was short lived when he was passed by Lew (who had started 6th) in the 8th lap and later had to defend against a charging Koh and Rakpaibulsombut. His race however, came to an abrupt end due to mechanical issues.
“Coming into Round 2, I had a very good feeling. I was a bit more confident and I was fastest in both unofficial and official practices as well as qualifying. It’s certainly the best weekend of racing I’ve had,” said 21-year old Lew.
“Race 2’s strategy was just to push hard and once I had the lead, to extend the gap as much as I could. As a driver, I try to be consistent and stay focused and I guess that was what won me the races this weekend,” he added.
Rookie Class
In the Rookie Class, the reverse starting format also placed Race 1’s winner, Brandon Ho, at the back of the field, followed by Amirul Afiq in 5th, Raja Amirul Syauqat in 4th. Audrey Leong in 3rd, Kingston Tan in 2nd and Adam Mikail in 1st position.
With two race wins from Round 1, Adam made sure he got a good restart to give himself an unassailable lead to win his third race in four races so far. Finishing second was Raja Amirul while in third position was Ho.
Now into its seventh year, the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Vios Challenge one-make series has seen a wave of young drivers rising to the top. This has been largely due to the series’ strict format as a one-make production race that utilizes an identically-race prepared new generation Toyota Vios powered by a 1.5-litre engine with a 5-speed manual transmission.
Thus instead of outright power (which can give an advantage to well-funded teams), the challenge is all about the skills, racecraft and strategies of the drivers. And because all the cars have identical power, the racing is close, which is what spectators like to see.
Most watched local racing series
Talking of spectators, while this round was also closed, it was still watched widely as the races were broadcast live during the two days. The Vios Challenge is today the most watched local racing series with more almost 30 million spectators (online via live broadcast and on-ground) since it was first introduced in 2017.
For the three races in Season 7, there will be a total of RM630,000 in prize monies to be won over 6 individual races. All the races are held at the PETRONAS Sepang International Circuit. The third and final round will take place on January 3 – 5 in 2025 and the public will be able to watch at the track. Being the Grand Finale, there will be many activities for the while family.
For updates on the one-makes series, visit www.toyota.com.my/en/tgrmalaysia.