After a successful debut in the 2021 edition of the Sepang 1000KM (S1K), UMW Toyota Motor and GAZOO Racing Malaysia are now aiming for success in Malaysia’s popular endurance race with the Toyota Vios. This weekend will see it entering two cars in the MTC Class to fight for the overall victory in the S1K – an achievement it so nearly came close to achieving last year.
The 2022 S1K, which has 77 entries this year, will also see a total of 15 SP2 Class Toyotas competing in the GAZOO Racing Vios Enduro Cup that is exclusive to and open to all generations of the model competing in the Vios Challenge and Vios Sprint Cup race series.
The Toyota team finished third and fourth in the MTC Class of the race in 2021, although the pair of Hayden Haikal and Timothy Yeo had crossed the finish line in 1st place overall and 3 laps ahead of their nearest rival who was in a Yaris. However, a penalty reclassified them in 4th place overall and 3rd in the MTC Class.
The second Toyota pair of Boy Wong and Dannies Ng had finished with a strong result in 4th place in the MTC Class and 6th overall. Three Toyotas also occupied the top 5 front positions from a field of 39 entries on the starting grid for the race.
While the Vios Challenge and Vios Sprint Cup are intensely close and competitive races, the GAZOO Racing Vios Enduro Cup will put teams, drivers and cars to the ultimate test over a long distance and many hours to cover 1,000 kms. Furthermore, the Vios Challenge was run on shorter tracks (some specially prepared ‘street circuits’) whereas the S1K is run around the full 5.534 kms of the Sepang International Circuit.
This year, the GAZOO Racing Vios Enduro Cup will have a total of RM30,000 in prize monies with RM10,000 awaiting the overall champion. The first runner-up will win RM8,000 while the third, fourth and fifth place winners will take home RM6,000, RM4,000 and RM2,000, respectively.
Limited slots are available in the GAZOO Racing Vios Enduro Cup and to register participation or for more details, racers and teams can contact Janet, the UMW Toyota Motor Race Management representative, at 016-367 3300.
“Endurance racing is the very pinnacle of motor-racing and the Vios, as well as models like the Yaris, have successfully demonstrated in the 2021 edition of the Sepang 1000KM that it has both the reliability and outright performance to become winners,” said UMW Toyota Motor’s President, Ravindran K.
“The running of the GAZOO Racing Vios Enduro Cup further illustrates the capabilities of the standard-production Vios in this ultimate test, keeping in mind that the same cars have already endured 6 races in the Vios Challenge and another 4 one-hour races in the Vios Sprint Cup this year,” he said.
Mr. Ravindran added that the GAZOO Racing Vios Enduro Cup will serve as a fitting finale for what has been an extremely successful and memorable season of racing for Toyota. It recently concluded the fifth season of the Vios Challenge one-make race series and the running of the inaugural GAZOO Racing Vios Sprint Cup which has been incorporated into the national Malaysia Championship Series (MCS).
“Expanding beyond the Vios Challenge is in tandem with UMW Toyota Motor’s aspiration of establishing a bigger footprint and to make an impactful contribution to Malaysian motorsports. It ties in with our objective to continually build ever better products,” he said.
