Overall winners in the past two years, Tengku Djan Ley Tengku Mahaleel ventured into unchartered territories in Sepang’s Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race this year; driving a 1600cc Proton Satria Neo and facing his toughest battle ever in his participation of the 12-hour endurance race.

Declining to predict the outcome of his battle among the 1600cc machines in Class C, Tengku Djan, who is partnering Faidzil Alang and Sutan Mustafa Salihin, said that it was going to be a very tough competition in view of the close contest among the Class C runners over the years in the MME.

“The 2007 race will be no different for Class C. It’s going to be close and we should see an exciting race among the Class C runners,” said Djan, who also said the battle for the overall honours would be as close as well and that that the top three teams should be finishing on the same lap after 12 hours of racing.

“The (BMW) Z4 was very fast in the wet yesterday. The Porsche RSR machines will be fast in the dry … it’s going to be one fierce battle to the end. I see the top three teams finishing on the same number of laps at the end of the race,” he said.    

With former F1 driver and endurance race king Hans Joachim Stuck, Johannes Stuck and Malaysian Japan Super Taikyu driver Fariqe Hairuman driving the BMW Z4 Coupe, the Petronas Syntium Racing Team is regarded as the hot favourites for the 2007 Petronas Primax 3 Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race.

A total of 100 cars had registered for the race, which would be flagged off at 11am tomorrow (Saturday, August 25) by Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai. However, only the 77 fastest cars would be starting the race as according to their classes.

The Proton Motorsports Division head also made clear that he had no problems competing in lower tier Class C; stressing that his mission this year was as important as the team’s objectives in their victorious races in 2005 and 2006.

“The first year in 2005 was to win the overall title; the second year was to defend it and now in the third, we aim to capture the Class C title as we had announced last year after winning our second title. We were third last year and the mission this year is to better that result,” said Djan when met after completing his qualifying session at Sepang Circuit today.

In the absence of Djan, Faidzil Alang and Australian Damien French, the winning Lotus Exige 300RR machine would be driven by Malaysia’s racing wonderkid Jazeman Jaafar, three-time MME winner Tommy Lee and Bill Ng of Singapore. 

Going in as the first driver for Team Proton R3 Motorsports on a wet track, Djan was ninth fastest among 29 runners with a time of 2 minute 40.175 seconds. Kenny Lee was fastest with a time of 2 minutes 36.183 seconds in a Toyota Corolla AE101. 

“The track was damped and slippery and the rain last night had washed away the rubber off the track. But, I guessed everybody else was also facing the same problem,” said Djan, who said based on a simulation exercise undertaken by the Proton R3 Racing Team, the Satria Neo should be completing 271 laps if everything goes according to plan.

“If we were able to complete 271 laps after the 12 hours, I would be very happy no matter where we finished. But, if managed 271 laps, we should be among the top finishers in Class C,” said Djan, who completed the same number of laps in his Lotus Exige 300RR machine.

For that race, however, Djan, Faidzil and French, had to run in six hours of rain including three hours of heavy downpour that saw many cars skidding into the gravel bed and bumping into one in what is regarded as the most challenging MME race since its inception in 2000.

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