Monday, 9 November 2015 – After five gruelling rounds, the first edition of the Malaysia Championship Series (MCS) drew to a close on Sunday, crowning Malaysia’s rising star Mark Darwin and Proton R3’s new partnership of James Veerapen and Fariqe Hairuman as the champions of the Touring Production and the Malaysian Touring Car (MTC) championships respectively.
The 2015 season also saw the rise of young talents, well reflected by the performance of 17-year-old Mitchell Cheah, who upstaged his more seasoned rivals to win Race 2 of the Touring Production Championship.
Sixth in Race 1 for the morning session, Kuala Lumpur-born Cheah, who drives for N1 Racing, stormed to the lead in Race 2 and immediately took control of the 10-lap contest, winning comfortably in 27 minutes 5.004 seconds and by more than 20 seconds over second-placed winner and another young talent, Jonathan Xie Bayu.
Another youngster, Gilbert Ang was equally outstanding in the Caterham Championship, which is one of the many support races that had provided additional attraction to the MCS, which is regarded as the national championship for track racing.
Marginally beaten to second place by the veteran Marcus Chye in the opening race on Saturday, Gilbert bounced back in style in Race 2 on Sunday, as he turned the tables on his elder rival in another nail-biting 10-lap contest.
Gilbert, who also competed in the MCS’ Touring Production Championship, took the chequered flag in 24 minutes 44.756 seconds and a mere 0.093 seconds ahead of Marcus. Tan Pye Chin took third while Tan Sri Azman Yahya, who finished third in Race 1 yesterday, had to be contented with fourth placing.
Unfortunately for Gilbert, however, he was unlucky in the main category after he was involved in a first corner incident in Race 1 on Sunday, and had to retire early from the race.
In the talent development Asia Cup Series, Jordan Love showed that he was a class above his rivals as the Australian teenager romped to commanding victories in all five races competed over the weekend.
In a field that included drivers from Japan, New Zealand, Britain, Kazakhstan, Norway and Taiwan, Malaysia showed it also has good prospects in the future in Adam Khalid, Adam Haikal and Nazim Azman, who all recorded podium wins during the weekend.
While Adam Khalid scored second place in Race 1 and Race 2 on Saturday, Adam Haikal showed his credentials by finishing second to Love in Race 4 in the morning session on Sunday. Nazim, on the other hand, scored third placing in Sunday’s Race 4 and 5 after a challenging experience on Saturday.
The final round of the MCS was headlined by the prestigious Asian Le Mans Series, which gathered top international drivers including those who had competed in the Super GT and Super Taikyu Series for Round 2 of the championship in Sepang.
The partnership of Nicolas Leutwiler and Shinji Nakano – overall winner of the opening round in Fuji, Japan – continued their supremacy in the championship by scoring their second victory of the season in Malaysia.
Driving the Oreca 03 R Judd machine and representing Team Race Performance, the dynamic duo completed 85 laps of the 5.543-km track in the three-hour endurance race, to win the LMP2 class. Contesting in high temperatures and high humidity, Algarve Pro Racing, which had Michael Munemann, Dean Koutsoumidis and Jamie Winslow behind the steering wheel, took second place.
The LMP3 class was topped by DC Racing that featured David Cheng, Ho Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent. Driving a Ligier JSP3 machine, the trio completed 68 laps.
Singapore-based Clearwater Racing Team, which fielded Mok Weng Sun, Keita Sawa and Rob Bell, took top honours for the GT class in their McLaren 650S GT3 machine. They completed 82 laps.
