Enjoying his stint in the Touring Production class, Mark Darwin further extends his lead in the 2015 Malaysia Championship Series by taking home the win for Round 4. This fourth consecutive win for Mark also means that he now has 60 points in the bag, putting him in the lead of the championship and leaving the Pentagon duo behind.
But things were not all smooth sailing for Mark as he struggled to nail the qualifying session the day before. Nevertheless, Mark completed the one-hour endurance race around the 5.543km circuit in 1 hour 35.434 seconds to score another 15 championship points.
While showing great pace in the opening rounds, the duo of Alan Wong and Chris Tan of Pentagon Racing were struggling in the championship especially when Mark made the jump from MTC to TP. After suffering a poor qualifying session, they only managed to finish tenth in the race to score a single point.
Coming in seconds place in TP was Gilbert Ang of Team R Engineering finishing 8.923 seconds behind Mark, followed by Mitchell Cheah of N1 Racing in third.
But with all the excitement happening on the circuit, one of the main highlights would definitely be the debut of the Iriz R3 race car by Proton R3. Running the car for the whole weekend, the Iriz R3 looked strong especially with the Prince of Drift himself being behind the wheels.
Despite already looking strong, Tengku Djan told us that the car was not in its fullest form and they will keep on working on the car for the Sepang 1000KM endurance race. Nevertheless, the Iriz R3 was already a potent in the MTC and Djan took home the win for Proton R3 after 1 hour 2 minutes 57.675 seconds of racing.
Showing great momentum this season, fellow teammates James Veerapen and Fariqe Hairuman gave Proton R3 the 1-2 win by coming in second in their Suprima S. The podium could have been secured exclusively for Proton R3, but the mechanical failure encountered by Syafiq Ali forced him out of the race after 13 laps of racing.
Taking the third spot on the podium was Team Sakura-Tedco’s Fitra Eri who for this round had ditched the trusty Satria Neo and was racing in the Preve instead. Although starting from the middle of the pack, he was able to slip through the crowd to bring home another trophy for the team.
Farriz Fauzy in the Honda City crossed the chequered flag in fourth followed by Chin Hwa Lip/Yap Wei Keng in the Suzuki Swift in fifth.
Malaysia Championship Series – Round 4
Top 5 Finishers
Touring Production Championship
1.Mark Darwin (Honda FD2R) 22 laps (1:00:35.434)
2. Gilbert Ang (Honda Integra DC5) 22 laps
3. Mitchell Cheah (Honda Integra DC5) 22 laps
4. Claire Jedrek / Lai Wee Sing (Honda FD2R) 22 laps
5. Kenny Lee (Toyota 86) 22 laps
Malaysian Touring Car Championship
1.Tengku Djan Ley (Proton Iriz R3) 22 laps (1:02:57.675)
2. James Veerapen / Fariqe Hairuman (Proton Suprima S) 21 laps
3. Fitra Eri (Proton Preve) 21 laps
4. Farriz Fauzy (Honda City) 21 laps
5. Chin Hwa Lip / Yap Wei Keng (Suzuki Swift) 21 laps
