Vios Challenge turns on the rush
THE second season of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival got off to a dramatic start with plenty of on-track action for the celebrity (Promotional), amateur (Sporting) and professional (Super Sporting) drivers competing in Round 1 of this year’s Toyota Vios Challenge.
The 1.65km street circuit, built against the backdrop of the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Kuala Terengganu saw actress Diana Danielle raced to victory from pole position in the opening race (Round 1) of the second season of the Toyota Vios Challenge.
She finished the race 2.4 seconds ahead of fellow celebrities Akim Ahmad in second and Janna Nick in third place.
In the Sporting Class, beatboxer Shawn Lee drove an outstanding first race of the season to claim both pole position and his first race victory after being promoted from Promotional to Sporting Class.
Finishing in second was last season’s runner-up Brendon Lim, who was followed by Kenneth Koh in third.
The Super Sporting Class saw the top three racers finishing within a second of each other, which was William Ho, Boy Wong and Kenny Lee who would take first, second and third place respectively.
The closely-contested battle had Kenny claim pole position for the race but it was his team mate William who made the better start from second on the grid to lead the 22-lap race from start to finish.
The second and final day of the race had even more heated action with the previous day’s top half race-finishers getting their positions reversed.
It was the same case for the race categories as well with the Super Sporting Class heading out first, followed by the Sporting and Promotional classes.
After 22 laps of intense racing, Syafiq Ali managed to cross the line to pick up his first win for the season with William coming in second 1.805 seconds later and Mark settling for third 4.38 seconds from the winner. The Sporting Class saw plenty of action until lap 15 which brought out the safety car due to intense rain.
The safety car lead the race until the end on lap 20 with Patrick Tam taking the top spot while Dannies Ng Khai took second and Vincent Ng in third.
Due to the rain, the Promotional Class was delayed till 5pm with plenty wheel-to-wheel action as Akim Ahmad took the top spot from fourth place, Aiman Tino taking second from seventh and Nabil Ahmad taking third from sixth position.
The Vios Challenge Race series now prepares to continue the much-heated action at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) from Oct 19 to 21.
Entrance to the festival is free for visitors with a myriad of activities including test drive sessions for Toyota’s new vehicles, stage games, promotional activities, lucky draws as well as meet and greet sessions with celebrities.