Sepang 12 hours sets up for International GT Challenge

Kuala Lumpur: The Sepang 12 Hours 2015 was recently launched, jointly organised by Sepang International Circuit (SIC) and the SRO Motorsports Group. The event will be part of the new International GT Challenge, to be launched in 2016.

At the official launch ceremony, Dato’ Razlan Razali, Chief Executive Officer of SIC and Stephane Ratel, Founder and CEO of the SRO Motorsports Group both stressed the importance of the collaboration for the future of the Sepang 12 Hours.

“By moving the 12-hour endurance race away from August, thus changing its name from the Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race, and organising the event at the end of the year, we aim to enable participation by more world class drivers and established endurance race teams,” said Datuk Razlan Razali, CEO of Sepang International Circuit.

“With the SRO Motorsports Group’s vast experience in organising major international endurance and sprint races, we are confident that the race will potentially become a key event in the world endurance racing calendar,” he added.

With major teams from both Europe and the Australasian region at the start of the Sepang 12 Hours, in addition to some of the best Asian teams, the race has become even more difficult. Teams and drivers in both Touring Cars and GT3 machinery now not only have to cope with the notorious heat and humidity, but the level of racing will force them to keep their wits about them at all times.

Although the GT3 category is the best represented on the starting grid, the battle for GTC, GT4 (with Team Proton Lotus bringing a Lotus Exige V6) and Touring Car honours will be at least as fierce. The Sepang 12 Hours has always seen a cohabitation of several racing categories and that has not changed for 2015. Audi, Bentley, Ferrari, Honda, Lamborghini, Lotus, McLaren, Mercedes, Porsche, Subaru and Toyota bring the total of prestigious brands on the entry list to eleven, all represented by top teams. All of these exciting racing machines are in the hands of GT- and Touring Car-specialists, with several former (and reigning) champions at the start.

Singapore-based Clearwater Racing will do everything in its power to take its third consecutive overall victory and with a driver line-up including last year’s winner Gimmi Bruni, triple Sepang 12 Hours-winner Mok Weng Sun, 2015 Blancpain Endurance Pro-Am champion Matt Griffin and GT World championship stalwart James Calado.

But the competition will be tough. With Maxi Buhk, Vincent Abril, Stéphane Ortelli, Laurens Vanthoor, Christopher Mies and Christopher Haase all on the entry list, there are several Blancpain GT Series champions at the start, all competing for factory-supported entries from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT and Bentley Team M-Sport.

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Even more, the McLarens of FFF Racing Team by ACM should not be counted out, nor should be Team AAI HubAuto’s Mercedes, with Japanese aces Hiroki Yoshimoto and Nobuteru Taniguchi at the wheel. A similar car will be entered by sister team Audi Hong Kong powered by Phoenix Racing Asia, with local hero (and former F1-racer) Alex Yoong sharing the car with Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong. Throw in former winner Peter Kox at the wheel of the B-Quick Racing Audi R8 Cup and it is clear that the level of racing in this year’s edition of the Sepang 12 Hours will be extraordinary, to say the least.