Sepang 12 Hours

Last updated
Sepang 12 Hours
Sepang.svg
Venue Sepang International Circuit
First race2000
Duration12 Hours
Most wins (manufacturer) Porsche (5)

The Sepang 12 Hours (formerly known as the Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race and Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race), was a 12 Hours endurance racing event held annually between 2000 and 2016 at the Sepang International Circuit on December in Malaysia.

Contents

It was organised by the Stephane Ratel Organisation, responsible for global GT3 standards in international sportscar racing.

The race was part of the inaugural Intercontinental GT Challenge in 2016.

Schedule

Historically part of the Merdeka holiday, the race was moved to December by Ratel to make the race as the first of four major endurance races held in the Northern Hemisphere winter, the traditional off-season of motorsport, with the others the Dubai 24 Hour (Creventic 24H Series) and the Rolex 24 at Daytona (IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in January, and the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour in February are the others.

History

1990–2000

In the late 1990s, Malaysian auto manufacturer Proton used to organize a 300 km race at Shah Alam circuit for local racers racing with Protons, to celebrate Merdeka in Malaysia. When Sepang International Circuit was built the race was shifted to the F1 circuit, with the winners of the race entitled to a new Proton road car.

But after the 1999 race, a dispute happened between Proton and Sepang International Circuit, resulting in Proton's sponsorship withdrawal. Sepang therefore decided to host a replacement race by itself and started the Merdeka Millennium 12 Hours Endurance Race in 2000. The race also opened up for non-Proton entries.

The inaugural race was won by the Proton EON Racing Team (PERT) with Jimmy Low, Karamjit Singh and Tommy Lee driving, beating off the challenge from TVR Racing who ran Malaysian F1 driver Alex Yoong.

2001–2017

2006 Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race logo MMER logo.png
2006 Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race logo

In 2001, TVR Racing won the race with Jeffery Wong, Tommy Lee and Admi Shahrul in a TVR Chimaera.

In 2002, Amprex Motorsport entered the Japan GT300 spec Mazda RX-7 machine, with crack Hong Kong driver Charles Kwan and Kevin Wong as its drivers. But the car failed to finish the race. Nigel Albon, Tommy Lee and T. Hamman won in their Porsche 911 GT3.

In 2003, the race got more serious with BSA Racing entering a Radical SR3 and a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup with Wolf Henzler as its lead driver, while Amprex Motorsport entered the BMW M3 GT for Charles Kwan, Matthew Marsh and Genji Hashimoto. Alex Yoong was also back with Jaseri Racing. But in the end unfancied G1-Meritus won the race after outlasting its rivals, with Eric Yeo, Firhat Mohkzani and Chin Tzer-Jinn driving their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car serenely to victory after completing 268 laps. [1]

In 2004, Amprex Motorsport, armed with the latest ACO/FIA GT1 spec Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT racer, totally dominated proceedings as its drivers set laps of 2:09s around the circuit. But the car broke down and Honda Malaysia Racing Team, with Eddie Lew, Farriz Fauzy and Super GT driver Hiroki Katoh, took the top step of the podium, despite running in class A.

The 2005 edition was dominated by a joint effort between Amprex Motorsport and Proton R3 Racing, together they operated the team and their Lotus Exige 300RR won outright, completing 279 laps.

In 2006, Amprex Motorsport decided to bring back the Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT for the race but it was crippled in a practice accident, allowing Proton R3 Racing's Lotus Exige 300RR a clear run to victory number 2, completing 271 laps in the process. Faidzil Alang, Australian Damien French and Tengku Djan Ley shared the driving duties.

The 2007 race has been made more interesting with more participation from foreign teams racing teams, namely J's Racing Lab with a Honda S2000 and Juniper Racing with a 911 GT3 RSR. Famous racing drivers such as former F1 and 24 Hours of Le Mans driver Hans-Joachim Stuck also participated in the race. Year 2007 also record the highest participation so far with 103 cars signing up for the race but only 77 makes it to the starting grid in accordance to the FIA circuit license granted to Sepang International Circuit.

In 2008, the race was won by Darryl O'Young, Mok Wing Sun and Alexander Nicholas Davison of Porsche Club Singapore. Their Porsche 997 RSR completed 308 laps. [2]

The race was renamed the Sepang 12 Hours in 2014, and in 2015 was run under the organisation of international sportscar racing authority the Stephane Ratel Organisation. [3]

The race in 2017 was cancelled due to a lack of entries, and has not been held since. [4]

2018–2022

After a break of 5 years, in 2022 it was announced race was returning for 2023 - the revival of the race is going to be organized by a partnership between Top Speed and Sepang International Circuit. [5]

Overall winners

YearTeamDriversCarLaps
2000 Flag of Malaysia.svg Proton EON Racing Team Flag of Malaysia.svg Jimmy Low
Flag of Malaysia.svg Karamjit Singh
Flag of Malaysia.svg Tommy Lee
Proton PERT253
2001 Flag of Malaysia.svg Team TVR Flag of Malaysia.svg Jeffrey Wong
Flag of Malaysia.svg Admi Sharhal
Flag of Malaysia.svg Tommy Lee
TVR Chimaera 250
2002 Flag of Malaysia.svg Jaseri Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Albon
Flag of Malaysia.svg Tunku Hammam
Flag of Malaysia.svg Tommy Lee
Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 262
2003 Flag of Malaysia.svg G1 Meritus Flag of Malaysia.svg Eric Yeo
Flag of Malaysia.svg Chin Tzer-Jinn
Flag of Malaysia.svg Firhat Mohkzani
Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 268
2004 Flag of Malaysia.svg Honda Malaysia Racing Team Flag of Malaysia.svg Eddie Lew
Flag of Japan.svg Hiroki Katoh
Flag of Malaysia.svg Farriz Fauzy
Honda Civic 2.0 i-VTEC 265
2005 Flag of Malaysia.svg Proton R3 Amprex Flag of Malaysia.svg Tengku Djan Ley
Flag of Japan.svg Genji Hashimoto
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Tony Ricciardello
Lotus Exige 300RR 279
2006 Flag of Malaysia.svg Proton R3 Team Flag of Malaysia.svg Tengku Djan Ley
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Damien French
Flag of Malaysia.svg Faidzil Alang
Lotus Exige 300RR 271
2007 Flag of Malaysia.svg Team Hong Leong-Kencana Racing Flag of Malaysia.svg Mokhzani Mahathir
Flag of Germany.svg Sven Herberger
Flag of Denmark.svg Lars Erik Nielsen
Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 288
2008 Flag of Singapore.svg Team Porsche Club Singapore Flag of Australia (converted).svg Alex Davison
Flag of Hong Kong.svg Darryl O'Young
Flag of Singapore.svg Weng Sun Mok
Porsche 997 RSR 308
2009 Flag of Japan.svg Petronas Syntium Team Flag of Malaysia.svg Johan Adzmi
Flag of Japan.svg Tatsuya Kataoka
Flag of Japan.svg Manabu Orido
BMW Z4M Coupe 306
2010 Flag of Malaysia.svg Arrows Racing Flag of Germany.svg Christopher Haase
Flag of Malaysia.svg Tunku Hammam
Flag of the Netherlands.svg Peter Kox
Lamborghini LP560 315
2011 Flag of Japan.svg Petronas Syntium Team Flag of Malaysia.svg Dominic Ang
Flag of Japan.svg Nobuteru Taniguchi
Flag of Japan.svg Masataka Yanagida
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 321
2012 Flag of Japan.svg Petronas Syntium Team Flag of Malaysia.svg Dominic Ang
Flag of Japan.svg Nobuteru Taniguchi
Flag of Japan.svg Masataka Yanagida
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 319
2013 Flag of Singapore.svg Clearwater Racing Flag of New Zealand.svg Craig Baird
Flag of Japan.svg Hiroshi Hamaguchi
Flag of Singapore.svg Weng Sun Mok
Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 323
2014 Flag of Singapore.svg Clearwater Racing Flag of Italy.svg Gianmaria Bruni
Flag of Malaysia.svg Alif Hamdan
Flag of Singapore.svg Weng Sun Mok
Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 325
2015 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Stuart Leonard
Flag of Monaco.svg Stéphane Ortelli
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Laurens Vanthoor
Audi R8 LMS 228
2016 Flag of Germany.svg Audi Sport Team Phoenix Flag of the Netherlands.svg Robin Frijns
Flag of Germany.svg Christopher Haase
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Laurens Vanthoor
Audi R8 LMS 305
2017Race Cancelled [6]
2018

2022
Not held
2023 Flag of Hong Kong.svg Absolute Racing Flag of Indonesia.svg Andrew Haryanto
Flag of Germany.svg Markus Winkelhock
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg James Yu
Audi R8 LMS Evo II 215
2024 Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg R&B Racing Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Wei Lu
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Leo Ye Hongli
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Bo Yuan
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 322

Multiple race winners

WinsDriver
3 Flag of Malaysia.svg Tommy Lee
Flag of Singapore.svg Weng Sun Mok
2 Flag of Malaysia.svg Tengku Djan Ley
Flag of Malaysia.svg Tunku Hammam Sulong
Flag of Japan.svg Nobuteru Taniguchi
Flag of Japan.svg Masataka Yanagida
Flag of Malaysia.svg Dominic Ang
Flag of Germany.svg Christopher Haase
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Laurens Vanthoor
WinsManufacturer
5 Porsche
3 Audi
2 Lotus
Ferrari
Mercedes-Benz

Records

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