Akio Takeyama, the Chief Motorsports Officer of UMW Toyota Motor (UMWT), will be among the participants in this weekend’s Sepang 1,000-km race (S1K). Mr. Takeyama, who is also Deputy Chairman of UMWT, will be a member of Team Toyota GAZOO Racing Malaysia in his maiden endurance race.

Regular in Vios Challenge
Racing is not new to Mr. Takeyama as he has already competed in the Promotional class for two full seasons of the Toyota Vios Challenge one-make race as well the third season which is ongoing. He will be using one of the two Toyota Vios racing cars prepared by Wing Hin Motorsports for the team. The cars will compete in the premier MTC class for modified production cars below 1600 cc using TRD race-prepared engines prepared at Wing Hin’s own facility in Balakong, Selangor.

“Having only raced in the Vios Challenge for two and a half seasons, going into the S1K will be a totally new and exciting experience for me. I look upon it as a challenge and an opportunity for me to push my own boundaries. I also hope to pick up some valuable insights from my team who have a wealth of circuit racing experience,” said Mr. Takeyama.

His team mates will be former Toyota GAZOO Racing development driver Akira Iida and William Ho. The second Vios racing under Team Wing Hin Motorsports banner will feature Boy Wong and Dannies Ng who have also been taking part in the Vios Challenge.

Le Mans racer in the team
With six Le Mans 24-hour race finishes under his belt, Iida has been instrumental in developing Toyota GAZOO Racing’s competitive edge, particularly in the Japan Super GT series. He was also a key member of the ROOKIE Racing team that developed the Toyota 86 for Toyota Motor Corporation’s President Akio Toyoda and his son Daisuke Toyoda to race in the Super Endurance 24-hour Race in Fuji Speedway earlier this year.

Buoyed by the team’s impressive performance in the 2018 event where a Vios driven by the pairing of Boy Wong and William Ho scored a remarkable podium finish, Wing Hin Motorsports Principal Simon Loh is confident that the cars will be among the front-runners again in this year’s event.

“With the valuable data collected from last year’s event, the new parts we have secured through our collaboration with TRD and the immense experience of former Toyota GAZOO Racing development driver Akira Iida who will drive for us this year, I believe that we have the package to be competitive once again this year,” said Mr. Loh.

“The S1K is not just about outright pace but working in synergy as a team, getting your strategies in place and running a good pace throughout the event. With good partners such as Toyota, TRD, Moty’s lubricants and Motec behind us, both cars should be in top-running positions barring any on-track incident,” he added.

Race flags off this Saturday
The Sepang 1,000-km race is the highlight of the Malaysian circuit racing calendar each year with a starting grid of some 70 cars based on production models available in Malaysia. The race on the 5.45-km circuit will take over 8 hours to complete with the faster cars expected to clock over 180 laps.

The race will be flagged off with a rolling start around noon this Saturday November 23, with the chequered flag expected to fall at around 9 pm in the evening of the same day.