The race will now start at midnight, very much like the time when the event was first launched and will go on for 12 hours. The MMER is known as Asia’ Biggest Race and the changes in the rules are set to attract more foreign teams as well as to make it more competitive. This time around, there will only be 3 classes in the competition namely GT Class, Sports Production Class and Touring Production Class and the eligibility of the cars to compete in each of these classes are clearly stipulated in the rules provided and outlined by the FIA.
According to Razlan Razali, the Chief Executive Officer of SIC, the 12 hour race would be highly competed among the teams and their drivers because although it is only half a day, the tropical climate of the country will wear off the drivers as well as the cars, hence strategies and tactics will play vital roles in the completion and outcome of the race.
Where the new rules are concerned, open top race cars will no longer be allowed to compete unlike in the past few editions. Under the FIA rules, only fully covered cars are allowed to take part which ruled out radical cars. This was implemented over the safety issue of open top cars which had to compete with almost 80 cars on the track. The new rules have been announced last year and teams are well informed of the changes as well as to make early preparations.
The event is scheduled to be held on 8th August at SIC and one of the latest addition to the participating teams include The Honda Malaysian Racing Team who will be fielding experienced drivers Eddie Lew, Aaron Lim and Rueben Wong who will be driving the Honda Type R, which was also involved in last year’s edition where they finished second in the A2 class.
