The Proton R3 Motorsports team has been facing a tough challenge throughout the year for the 2014 Malaysian Super Series season, but it was far from enough to hamper their spirits to soldier on to the next rounds. Round 4 promises as much challenge like the previous rounds of the season, and they now have a new face in the driver lineup to assist the team in the effort to tackle them.
Sharing the driver’s seat with James Veerapen in the #12 Suprima S R3 race car is a face that is far from being a stranger in the local motorsports scene, Tengku Ezan Ley. Having raced in various levels of motorsports, he is grateful that Proton R3 had offered him the opportunity to race under the team’s flag for the MSS Round 4.
“For me, it was an opportunity. Basically R3 gave me the opportunity, inviting me for testing to see what kind of timing I could get. They seemed okay with it, but personally for me I still think I’ve got a lot of room to make improvements on in terms of driving, because this is the first time I’ve driven the car in this setup,” said Ezan.
Despite the small window of time, he managed to familiarize himself with the car in time for the race. With a best timing of 2:39.369 posted during qualifying, Tengku Ezan will start the race from fifth on the grid. In the #11 Preve R3, Syafiq Ali will still be commandeering the race car all by himself and with a slightly faster timing of 2:39.085, he will start the race from third on the grid.
With those in the front row all aiming for a podium spot, the start was an exciting one as top guns from Team Sakura-Tedco Racing and R Engineering go head-to-head with Proton R3.
“The race was actually quite exciting for the first three laps. We were able to keep up with the pace of the front runners and we were dicing between second and third together with Syafiq and Ah Lai from R Engineering. But Mark Darwin did a pretty good move, so he pretty much pulled away from the start. But it was a good fight between the Preve and R Engineering.”
After starting from fifth, Ezan went in for the pit stop and was in fourth position by that time. Passing the wheel to James, he maintained pace behind Syafiq, unaware that the #11 Preve was experiencing some mechanical issue.
“I didn’t know that he (Syafiq) had one, so that sort of slowed me down in terms of my progress. By that time, Alvaro and Mark was so far away and there was only KK Soh in front of me. So I made my way past them and I got a challenge from one of the Tedco cars, and that went on like five laps or so. We were quicker in a few corners so we used that to our advantage,” said James who piloted the Suprima S in the second half and bringing the car home in third place.
Aside from the mechanical failure, Syafiq was in top form in the #11 Preve race car and was even gunning for the first place before the safety car came out. Experiencing a problem with the fuel pump, he lost a couple of positions before switching to the second fuel pump. He then managed to bring his car from eighth to sixth position before crossing the finish line.
