Since making its entry in 2015, Viper Niza Racing has been among the more successful fully Malaysian racing teams in regional and international competition. Its most significant victory was the class win at the 2019 TCR SPA500 24-Hour endurance race in Belgium with a CUPRA Leon.
Now, after 105 race starts by its driver and Team Principal & Owner, Douglas Khoo, Viper Niza Racing is taking a big step forward with two new racing cars for an assault in international and regional GT sportscar racing.
This report was contributed by the late Gary Khor, a motorsports enthusiast who was also very much involved in the sport in various roles. Gary, who passed away in early 2020, wanted to create more awareness of the success of Malaysian drivers overseas, and gave us reports of events that they took part in.
It was 10 pm Saturday night in Malaysia and 4 pm in Spa, Belgium as the inaugural TCR SPA500 race started. This 500-lap race was a round in the international TCR series and run set in the famous but treacherous Spa circuit. Drivers and crews could expect intense activity for at least 23 hours.
Spa is famous for its unpredictable weather and the recent World Endurance Championship round held there saw rain, hail and even snow during the race! The race is run by the Endurance Racing promoter Creventic and is well known for its ‘Code 60’ replacement for the traditional Safety Car. In the case of an incident during racing, a ‘Code 60’ is issued which is like a full course Yellow except that all cars are required to slow to a 60 km/h speed limit by a certain time whilst maintaining the gap to the car in front. This way, cars are not bunched up in the restart making race resumptions safer.
“It was so nice to have the locals welcoming us and asking for our autographs,” said Douglas Khoo, team principal of the Viper Niza Racing Team.
In this race, Malaysian team Viper Niza Racing led by team principal Douglas Khoo in #65 Seat Cupra was vying for the TCR Nations Cup along with teams from China, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria.
The team had help from some old team mates -Dominic Ang, Farique Hairuman and Melvin Moh – from the PETRONAS Syntium Team which won multiple championships in the Japanese SuperTaikyu Series. Dominic and Melvin, in particular, have much experience in long-distance endurance racing having competed in the Dubai 24Hours, FujiTec 24Hours and Sepang 12Hours.
After over 100 laps, the SPA500 was into its 6th hour. #65 started with Douglas in 16th and pitted for a driver change during a Code 60 when the leader hit the barriers at Eau Rouge.
Farique was lucky to pit for fuel during another Code 60, double stinted and brought #65 up to 10th before handing to Dominic who also pitted for fuel during yet another Code 60 (but could only take on half a tank of fuel according to regulations).
Dominic then managed to be one of the quickest drivers on the track and brought #65 to 2nd in the ProAm class & 4th overall before coming in after another double stint to hand over to Melvin who had since caught the front runners and bringing #65 up to 2nd overall and was leading the ProAm class !
More than 250 laps had been completed and the inaugural TCR SPA500 was halfway through. The Malaysian team was now 3rd outright and still leading the ProAm class! Farique was behind the wheel after Dominic handed over the car from Melvin earlier on. It appeared during Melvin’s stint that an issue occurred and the car had to be pitted for a check but soon went out again albeit after losing time and laps. It was a pity as Melvin had brought the car up to 2nd overall at one point in the night.
But ultimately, Team Viper Niza Racing did it – winning the ProAm class in this inaugural TCR SPA500. Congratulations to Douglas Khoo, Dominic Ang, Melvin Moh, Farique Hairuman, Nico and all his boys and also Rueben Wong. You have all done us and Malaysian Motorsports proud!
As mentioned just before the first weekend in July, there was an amazing number of Malaysian drivers involved in racing in an International/Asian series – but sadly, reports of such activities are not spread widely among Malaysians. Gary Khor, our contributor who now identifies himself as ‘HardKhor Motorsports’, believes that this needs to be corrected and is doing his part to highlight the drivers in his reports…
During the weekend, the professional (PRO) Malaysian drivers were Adam Khalid, Jazeman Jaafar, Melvin Moh and Afiq Ikhwan Yazid. Gentlemen drivers were Douglas Khoo in TCR Asia Series, H.H. Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahim in Blancpain GT World Asia, and East Malaysian Zen Low in the Lamborghini Trofeo Asia. My apologies to Zen Low for having accidentally omitted him in my first article.
That’s a total of 8 Malaysian Race drivers out there racing for Malaysia last weekend. Not forgetting of course Douglas Khoo’s complete Malaysian team of mechanics and Engineer in the Viper Niza Racing team in TCR Asia.
TCR ASIA ROUNDS 5&6 – ZHEJIANG
Sadly, this race weekend didn’t start well for Douglas Khoo as he was having a fever from the Thursday and his Viper Niza Race team had to skip both the paid practice sessions on Friday.
In spite of a lingering and intermittent fever, Douglas nevertheless went out for Race 1 on Saturday only to incur a puncture leading to a cracked rear damper! Race 2 was uneventful and he was just glad to finish his race and collect some more points towards his championship.
Commenting in the pits, Douglas said: “Had a good start for Race 2 but was just not physically strong to compete”. A brave drive then in physically very trying conditions for Douglas. We wish him a speedy recovery and a better race in the final rounds in Thailand next month.
Adam Khalid, the rookie in the TCR Asia Series had to learn and adapt to the Zhejiang International Circuit which was green throughout the weekend. This meant that constant rain had denied the track a chance to build up rubber and therefore grip. “I owe this weekend to the team for giving me such a great base set-up on the car so we only had to make minor changes throughout practice sessions,” said Adam. Qualifying in the cool conditions and green track meant a distinct lack of grip and heat in the tyres. Despite that, Adam managed a 7th starting position for Race 1 and 8th in Race 2 out of a field of 20 cars.
In Race 1, he moved up to 5th place and started fighting it out with cars from 2nd down to 8th as Luca Engstler had bolted from pole. Close racing like this tends to overheat the brakes and affects engine performance too, so Adam wisely dropped back to preserve his car and passed the chequered in P4 in TCR Asia and P1 in the Asian driver category!
Race 2 saw Adam start from 3rd on the grid. A big tussle (normal in TCR Racing) among some of the frontrunners saw him taking avoiding action using the scenic route and dropping him down to 11th. But a determined drive saw him climb back to finish 5th and in a similar position to Race 1. He now is 6th overall in TCR Asia standings and 3rd in the Asian Drivers title. Well done Adam!
BLANCPAIN GT WORLD CHALLENGE ASIA Rd 7 & 8 – FUJI SPEEDWAY
The premium International GT series in Asia was held in Fuji Speedway this round saw intense and close driving even before Races 1 & 2 evident from the practice sessions. Both races were 1 hour in duration with a compulsory pit-stop of no less than 60 seconds and a driver change.
PRACTICE
Free Practice 1 on Friday saw Craft-Bamboo team mates #88 Alessio Picariello and #55 Melvin Moh first and second quickest and separated by an incredible 3/1000ths of a second! Weiron Tan in the #12 Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 was 4th fastest while Jazeman in Triple Eight Race Engineering Australia #888 was 14th. Later, Jazeman would top the timesheets in Official Practice followed by Melvin and Weiron, 4th and 5th fastest respectively.
QUALIFYING
Qualifying 1 determines starting positions in Race 1 and Martin Rump, Weiron Tan’s driving partner, put their Audi in 2nd. H.H. Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahim, Jazeman Jaafar’s team mate would start in 17th while Singaporean Daniel Au and Melvin’s drive partner started in 24th.
Qualifying 2 and hence Race 2 grid positions saw Jazeman put #888 in 2nd with Melvin 4th and Weiron Tan just behind in 5th.
RACE 1
Race 1 saw 31 cars on the grid, made up of 24 GT3 cars and 7 GT4-spec cars. It was going to be an interesting race as most of the Am drivers from the PRO-AM teams would be starting this race.
Remember, of the Malaysians taking part, only Weiron Tan is in a PRO classified team and Melvin and Jazeman are both in the PRO-AM class. Weiron had to start from 7th due to a penalty incurred in the previous round in Suzuka Japan. He did very well to bring his car up to 4th by the first turn.
And then an incredible chain of incidents and accidents began to start within the next 15 mins of Race 1. During the formation lap, iRace’s Mercedes-AMG GT4 spun around after a tap from the #910 Li Chao Porsche. Then the #88 Picariello/Jeffrey Lee driven Mercedes-AMG GT3 would be put into a spin by the #17 Mercedes AMG GT3.
Next, the bonnet on Vutthikorn’s #918 Porsche GT3 R flipped open, blinding him and his car slid into the path of the #92 Porsche following behind and minding its own business. Then, to cap it off, the unlucky Jeffrey Lee in #88 got hit and spun around a second time by the SAME car!
Inevitably, #17 would incur two drive-through penalties and just to add to their woes, they incurred an unbelievable 3rd penalty for speeding in the pitlane whilst serving one of the drive-through penalties. Some days, it’s better to just stay in bed!
Thus, in the first 15 minutes, the pits had a flurry of activity with damaged cars limping in for repairs. Even the Thai-owned Vattana Lamborghini Huracan was seemingly not spared with some bodywork hanging off the side of the car.
Meanwhile, Weiron soldiered on to 4th and our Johor prince drove well to bring the #888 AMG up to 13th position. Daniel too drove well to keep out of the mayhem. After the mandatory pitstops, Weiron’s team mate rejoined in 5th, Jazeman in 17th and Melvin below 20th.
In a thankfully incident-free 2nd half of Race 1, Martin Rump would bring the Absolute Racing run Audi to 2nd, Jazeman would finish in 11th with Melvin in 17th.
RACE 2
Sunday started out warm, overcast and a little windy but soon Fuji Speedway would heat up with the action on track. Based on Quali 2, the Craft-Bamboo #88 was on pole, followed by Jazeman Jaafar in the #888, 3rd on the grid was Yokomizo’s #17 AMG which had a string of penalties the day before, and 4th was Melvin and Weiron was in 5th spot on the grid.
The action heated up straight into Turn 1 when Yokomizo tapped Jazeman in the back sending the car sideways into the side of Picariello. But everyone survived to continue through Turn 2 and settled down into a very quick train of 5 cars for the next 15 minutes.
Picariello in #88 was running away from Yokomizo, now in front of a very determined Jaafar, followed by Melvin and Weiron. Yokomizo then received a drive-through penalty for what had happened to Jazeman at Turn 1. The pit stop window opened with some 33 minutes left in the race and predictably, the PRO drivers stayed out as long as they could before coming in to hand over to their AM partners, except for Weiron who handed #12 to another PRO, Martin Rump.
With 20 minutes of the race left, Jeffrey Lee led in #88 over the Prince in #888, Weiron was in 5th when Melvin’s team mate went into a spin and then a collision with the #75 Ryo Haryanto Ferrari 488. This brought out the Safety Car which would see things up front change significantly.
With just 9 minutes left before the chequered flag would wave and the lead car incurring a penalty for exceeding track limits, it was a frantic race to the finish. Another accident between the #17 AMG and the #27 Ferrari with 4 minutes left and more penalties for overtaking under the Safety Car for #777 and #13 meant that Malaysian Weiron Tan in #12 won with the Prince of Johor coming in 5th overall and 2nd in PRO-AM class!
LAMBORGHINI SUPER TROFEO ASIA – FUJI
This one-make Lamborghini series follows the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia series. Weather conditions for both their races were fairly similar.
RACE 1
Malaysian PRO driver, Afiq Yazid driving for Japan-based Team Hojust Wakayama Racing started Race 1 from 4th on the grid and brought his car up to 2nd before handing over to his team mate Ochiai Toshiyoki. Ochiai kept it there to finish 2nd overall and 1st in PRO-AM class.
East Malaysian Zen Low and AM driver shared his car with A. Negro who went as high as 15th, finished in 17th. Position in Race 1.
RACE 2
Ochiai started Race 2 from 6th on the grid and managed to make up 4 places before handing over to Afiq. The Malaysian driver then drove #38 to the top spot making up a whopping 20-second deficit in the process. This was the team’s first overall victory this season and they will be heading the PRO-AM class when they are at Yeongnam for the next round in Korea.
Zen Low, ever consistent and careful finished again in 17th in Race 2. Well done to both Afiq and Zen in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Fuji!
So there you have it, in first weekend of July, 8 Malaysian drivers and 1 all-Malaysian team raced in 2 countries in 3 International Race Series and stood on podiums across all series… can’t get better than that – for now!
Motorsports being what it is in the Malaysian context, news and publicity of our racers who compete outside the country tends to be limited. Their fans and enthusiasts will know about them but by and large, most Malaysians don’t realize that we do have some talented drivers winning races and championships.
Our new contributor, Gary Khor, talks about 6 Malaysian drivers and 1 Malaysian race team who will be participating in 3 race events spanning China and Japan this weekend. He also provides an overview of the races they will be in.
TCR ASIA : ZHEJIANG CHINA
Douglas Khoo with his all-Malaysian crewed Viper-Niza Racing team will be contesting in Zhejiang China in Rounds 5 & 6 of the 2019 TCR Asia Series (which will include the TCR China Series this weekend). This is the 4th leg in the series which has already visited Sepang (April), Zhuhai (May) and Shanghai (June).
Douglas is in his fourth season in TCR Asia and shown he has the pace to mix it with the best having out-qualified even Luca Engstler in TCR Malaysia.
Another Malaysian in the series is the winner of the 2019 Sepang International Circuit Talent Development Driver, Adam Khalid. 21 years old, Adam (below) will be in the Team Engstler VW Golf TCR. Adam came from karting, Formula 4 Asia and MCS.
The Zhejiang International Circuit, built in 2016, is in the South Eastern province of China and just South of Shanghai. It’s an undulating circuit made up of 16 corners with interesting elevation changes.
The news this weekend will also be the introduction of the latest addition into the TCR family albeit under temporary homologation. Chinese group SAIC Motor will be entering a pair of MG6 TCR’s with popular China-based racer Rudolpho Avila and Zhang Zhen Dong.
MG6 TCR
Points-leading TCR Asia and last season’s TCR Malaysia & Middle East champion, Luca Engstler with team mate Diego Moran will spearhead the TCR Asia contingent joined by WTCR campaigner Pepe Oriola, all in Hyundai i30N cars.
China TCR’s top contenders will be UK’s Daniel Lloyd, who races in TCR UK and once raced for Craft-Bamboo in the Aston Martin GT3. He will pilot the Dongfeng MacPro Racing Honda Civic FK7.
After this round, TCR Asia will head to the famous Bangsaen street Circuit in Thailand for the final rounds in late August.
BLANCPAIN GT WORLD CHALLENGE ASIA : FUJI JAPAN
A record 4 Malaysian drivers are entered in 3 race teams participating in what is arguably Asia’s best series for GT3 & GT4 cars. World-class racing cars in a world-class event with our very own world-class drivers.
After the first rounds run in Sepang and then Buriram in Thailand, the series goes to the iconic Fuji Speedway nestled in the hills. This circuit is famous for its long fast front straight and downhill section and often has changeable weather as fog and sometimes snow can descend.
Weiron Tan, who debuted last year in the WEC (World Endurance Championship) in a Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), will be sharing an Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 with the very quick and seasoned Martin Rump and contesting in the GT3 PRO class.
Weiron Tan
Melvin Moh needs no introduction as he is easily Malaysia’s leading Endurance Race driver with several victories in 12 & 24-hour endurance races recently. In 2018, he was on the podium in all these races – the Dubai 24-Hours in a Leipart Lamborghini Huracan; the Fuji-Tec 24-Hours in an Audi R8; and the China Endurance Championships in a Mercedes-AMG GT.
He will partner Gentleman driver Daniel Au in a Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the PRO-AM category.
Melvin Moh (Car 55)
H.H. Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahim from Johor is making his debut in Asian GT racing in the Australian Triple Eight run Mercedes-AMG GT3. It’s his first year and he is proving to be a quick learner in these very difficult cars when driven at their limits.
Australian Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG GT3
Jazeman Jaafar, another name that needs no introduction, having raced many years overseas in F2 and other machinery, recently partnered Weiron in the JC Racing LMP2 car in the WEC. Jazeman brings with him enormous experience in many types of racing machinery and will partner H.H. Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahim in their Triple Eight GT3.
LAMBORGHINI SUPER TROFEO ASIA 2019 : FUJI JAPAN
This is a very high-speed one-make race featuring the Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo which has a similar engine to the Huracan GT3.
Afiq Ikhwan Yazid winning the 2018 Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Final in Italy in March this year.
Afiq Ikhwan Yazid, fresh from winning the 2018 Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Final held at Vallelunga, Italy in March this year and podiums in the Suzuka round in June, will be contesting this round again. This is a PRO-AM class team and Afiq has shown blinding pace all season and has often been the fastest in qualifying.
The 2019 Road To Le Mans may be over, but it will forever be etched in the minds of an all Malaysian team that took part in this year’s chapter of the legendary race.
Viper Niza Racing made history recently when it became the first all-Malaysian team to take part in the legendary race. CLICK HERE to read more about the team and their step into one of the biggest races in the world. (more…)
The 24 hours of Le Mans is the pinnacle of motorsport endurance racing. Widely considered as the holy grail of motorsport. Win here and your name goes down in history as one of the greatest, ever.
Le Mans has been the stage of great duels, of victories and bitter defeats, terrible crashes that has claimed many lives. It is also the stage of some fantastic technology, incredible display of talent, and for a country as small as Malaysia, it is the ultimate calling for local race teams. And that brings us to our topic, the story of Viper Niza Racing. (more…)
