Clearwater Racing took a second consecutive win at the 2014 Malaysia Merdeka 12 Hour Endurance Race at Sepang on Sunday with their pair of Ferrari 458 GT3s taking a dominant 1,2 finish in the 15th running of the race
Gimmi Bruni anchored the effort to good effect, powering away from the start and then pulling away again after an early race safety car period giving his team-mates, young local driver Alif Hamdan and Clearwater regular Mok Weng Sun a decisive edge against the remainder of the 28 car field, eventually taking the win by a full lap.
The result gave Mok Weng Sun a second consecutive win in the race, the third man to achieve this with the same team.
Mok Weng Sun:
“It’s unbelievable, I think it’s the first time ever were we had a race when we went maximum driving time for each stint we were out there. No mistakes out on the circuit, no mistakes in the pit stops, and we broke our track lap record from last year by two laps. The only thing that slowed us down was the safety cars and it’s the first time I’ve ever experienced a perfect race.”
Behind the leading Ferrari there was a four car battle for second place with the #28 MPC Audi R8 LMS making rapid progress up to grab the slot from a 6th place start before being overtaken by the second Clearwater Ferrari. The #28 would suffer delays later in the race.
Behind the Audi the #007 Craft Bamboo Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 mounted a race long defence of third from another R8, this time the #99 car of Absolute Racing, the team losing an other Audi, #101, to disqualification after two team mechanics were adjudged to have entered the track as the car was stranded in the gravel after a spin.
The Aston Martin though had late dramas as, into the final hour, the car was in the garage for a hub failure – That cost the team a lap and it was then time for Stefan Mucke to mount one of his signature charges – He didn’t quite make it, Alex Imperatori just managing to hang on to complete the overall podium.
Sport and Touring Class pole sitters Jim Hunter Motorsport had major problems at the start that saw them drop from first to 25th.
“We had a couple of bizarre problems, the power steering fluid boiled and almost locked the steering up, so we brought the car in and replaced the steering rack and the power steering pump. We went back out and had the same problem. With no power steering it’s physically very hard to drive.”
The #777 Team NZ car charged through to win the GTC class with Graeme Dowsett, John Curran, Will Bamber and Yuey Tan.
Graeme Dowsett:
“All four of us came out of that car practically half dead. It was extremely, extremely hot in that car. We had a really good race strategy and all our drivers basically kept to that and we managed to get all the way through with a very good pit crew; no mistakes from them.”
B-Quik Racing saw more action than most, two of their drivers having minor spins, one after a slight touch from the lead cars lapping them. They persisted to bring their Audi R8 home in second position in the GTC class.
The race saw just three Safety Car periods and overall reliability was good with 6 retirements from the race (incliuding the disqualified Audi – the popular Daytona Sportscar was a survivor, but needed a replacement engine mid race!.
After the chequered flag, race promoter Ian Geekie was more than pleased with the weekend event stating “it was a great weekend with some fantastic racing from the best drivers in Asia and endurance racing. After the excitingly close qualifying session I knew we would be watching another special MME. I would like to thank the PPM team and the Sepang International Circuit for putting together such a great event. A huge thanks to all the teams and drivers who endured the extreme heat and humidity to give us such a great fight. I can’t wait until next year.”
