UMW Toyota Motor eyeing up for Sepang 1000KM Race victory

UMW Toyota Motor (UMWT) has set its sights on charting victory at the upcoming Sepang 1000KM Race (S1K) event that takes place this week from Nov 17 to Nov 20 at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC). For this year’s edition, UMWT is officially represented by two teams, one competing in the MTC Class and the other racing in the SP2 Class instead.

UMWT made its debut in perhaps the country's most prestigious and most competitive endurance racing event last year where it finished Third and Fourth in the premier MTC Class. The firm came close to an overall victory here before a post-race penalty saw the leading team, led by drivers Timothy Yeo and Hayden Haikal, being relegated to Fourth overall – and Third in the MTC Class standings – instead.

This year, competing in the MTC Class for UMWT are the driving duo of Naquib Azlan and Tengku Djan Ley – the latter better known as Malaysia’s ‘Prince of Drift’ too. In the SP2 Class, UMWT’s official efforts are being spearheaded by the driving trio of Nabil, Hamdany and Muiz.

Besides that, UMWT is also hosting the Toyota Gazoo Racing Vios Enduro Cup that runs concurrently within S1K’s SP2 Class. This Cup is opened exclusively to all generations of the Toyota Vios models competing in the Vios Challenge and Vios Sprint Cup race series. For this year’s S1K, a total of 15 SP2 Class Toyotas will be vying for this cup and its prize money – RM10,000 for the Cup’s winner.

“The running of the Gazoo Racing Vios Enduro Cup further illustrate the capabilities of the standard-production Vios in this ultimate test, keeping in mind that the same cars have already endured six races in the Vios Challenge and another four one-hour races in the Vios Sprint Cup this year,” said Ravindran K., President of UMWT.

The exec further adds that the Cup serves as a fitting finale for what has been an extremely successful racing season for Toyota. It follows up from the recently concluded Season 5 of the Vios Challenge premier one-make race series and the running of the inaugural Gazoo Racing Vios Sprint Cup, the latter event being successfully incorporated into the national Malaysia Championship Series (MCS) too.