TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Vios Challenge Round 1 (Race 1)

The first round of the seventh season of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Vios Challenge began this weekend, running in conjunction with the Malaysian Championship Series (MCS) at the PETRONAS Sepang International Circuit.

The series, which began in 2017, has a total of RM630,000 in prize monies for Season 7’s 6 races, making it still the most lucrative series in Malaysian motor-racing.

This weekend sees 34 drivers, all of whom will be using the same Toyota model – the Vios – as this is a one-make series. There is a new and upgraded racing version available this year but the competition remains as before, emphasising on driving skill, racecraft, strategy, and technical preparation. All the cars are thoroughly inspected before and after each race to ensure that they meet the regulations to ensure that there is no performance advantage.

The first race of the opening round saw a total of 34 cars taking to the grid together. The race was dominated by young drivers who accounted for 6 of the 9 top drivers from three individual classes of racing.

In the Super Sporting Class for professional and seeded drivers, Naquib Azlan who had started from pole position shot into the lead going into the first corner and gradually began to open up on a clear track ahead.

By lap 6, the Axle Sports’ driver was already 1.9 second ahead of Prima Pearl TD Racing’s Mitchell Cheah and TD Racing’s Tengku Djan Ley. That lead marginally extended, and while Tengku Djan consolidated his second position on the back of badly worn tyres, Cheah had to fight off Telagamas  Toyota’s Freddie Ang  And Wheelcorp’s Nabil Azlan to hang on to third place. In the closing laps of the 1-hour race, Nabil however, dug deep to find his way pass Ang and Cheah to secure third place.

“I’ve always felt that I deserve to be in this sport and category. I know what I am capable of. This is a good result and it will definitely be a boost in momentum. I’m just going to keep my head down and stay focused for each race that comes,” said Naquib, who is into his second year of competing in the Super Sporting Class for professional and seeded drivers.

Naquib, a graduate of the GAZOO Racing Young Talent Development Program in Malaysia, comes from a background of sim racing, proving the value of digital motor racing for those who want to eventually move into real-world racing. He was the Rookie Class champion for young drivers in 2021 and the Sporting Class champion (for amateur racers) in 2022.

His younger brother, Nabil, is also a product of the same program which is one of the ways UMW Toyota Motor has been contributing to the development of Malaysian motorsports. Nabil – also a former Rookie Class (2022) and Sporting Class champion (2023) – is making his debut in the professional class this year as rookies progress upwards with more experience in the Vios Challenge.

“I had a good start from 5th position on the grid and as the front runners (Cheah and Ang) fought for track position, I chose to hang back and conserve my tyres and that strategy played into my advantage,” said Nabil.

“I’ve always had that mindset that I would like to win in any race that I competed in and that has remained moving up to the Super Sporting Class,” said Nabil. “Over the last 3½ years of racing on simulators, I’ve also always known that this day [challenging brother Naquib] would come soon or later,” he added.

Seeking to follow in the footsteps of the two brothers are 18-year-old pro karter Adam Mikail who clinched the race win in the Rookie Class ahead of 22-year old recreational karter Brandon Ho, and another recreational karter 18-year old Amirul Afiq.

The 3 Rookie Class drivers this season are also joined by 17-year-old pro karter Audrey Leong; 21-year old simulator racer Raja Amirul (talent discovered from Toyota GR GT Cup Campus Tour 2023); and 19-year old recreational karter, Kingston Tan.

In the Sporting Class, Race Rally KL’s Shafiq Samsudin claimed the top spot from a field of 17 drivers to make a remarkable start in the season after facing numerous hardships in past season. “It was quite a difficult race considering all of us are required to become acquainted with a new car this season but with enough practice this weekend I was able to quickly adapt,” he said.

“There is so much more to learn about the new car and the tyres this season – especially with differences to the gear ratios, the brake system and level of tyre grip. It’s a question of trying to get the right set-up for the car… we’ll eventually get there with more seat time,” said Shafiq.

Finishing second place and in only his first international race was Thai driver and 16-year old Panithan Rakpaibulsombut, while PCM Group Racing Team’s Kenneth Koh rounded up the top three winners.

Season 7 is also the first time the Vios Challenge is opened to international drivers and joining Rakpaibulsombut are also 16-year old Aman Nagdev from India (driving for Axle Sports, a local team), and 48-year old Singaporean, Daniel Rein Ooi, of BAE Racing By ES Yang.

As before, the weekend’s racing is being broadcast live so those who could not go to the track could still follow the action. It is the most watched local racing series with more almost 30 million online viewers and 220,000 on-ground spectators since the series began 7 years ago.

Catch the live racing action for all 3 rounds on these social media channels:
FACEBOOK – facebook.com/tgrmy | YOUTUBE – youtube.com/@tgrmalaysia
INSTAGRAM – instagram.com/tgrmalaysia

Vios Challenge is on again this weekend at Sepang