Kuala Lumpur / Dubai (UAE), 17 January 2010 – The PETRONAS Syntium Team (PST) kicked off their 2010 campaign in fashion with a memorable win at the team’s first ever outing at the 24 hours of Dubai. – PST claims first major international endurance series class win (results)
Emerging triumphant at the 24 hour mark on Saturday with a win in the A5 petrol class (see notes below) and an impressive overall second place were the quartet made up of Malaysian Fariqe Hairuman, Japanese duo Masataka Yanagida and Nobuteru Taniguchi and guest driver Johannes Stuck of Liechtenstein in the team’s #40 BMW Z4M Coupé.
Meanwhile, the team’s other BMW Z4M Coupé car (competition #41) driven by Japanese drivers Tatsuya Kataoka, Manabu Orido, Kosuke Matsuura, Hiroki Yoshida (reserve driver) and Malaysian youngster Johan Adzmi had to overcome a host of problems throughout the gruelling endurance race to finish third in the A5 petrol class.
Race Report: Despite tough competition from the A6 petrol class factory-backed Porsches, PST’s inaugural outing at the 24 hours of Dubai got off to a strong start on Thursday with both BMW Z4M Coupés qualifying into the top-ten. The team’s #41 car qualified overall 8th (2nd in class) ahead of the #40 car in overall 9th (3rd in class), earning a fourth and fifth row start, respectively.
Hour 0 – 12: Flagged off on Friday at 1400hrs Dubai time (1800hrs Malaysian time) both cars were able to get off to a good start to remain with the leading pack. Pacing themselves with competitive lap times within the 2:06 – 2:10 minute mark, both cars were able to hold their own against the Porsches to make their way up the field to eventually take 1st (car #40, 3rd overall) and 2nd (car #41, 4th overall) positions in the A5 petrol class within the first three hours.
Adopting a consistent pace through the first quarter of the race, the team’s #40 BMW Z4M Coupé was able to stay within the overall top-3 positions of the race. The team’s second car (#41) however suffered its first problem into the fourth hour, when a crash forced a long stop as mechanics worked to fix the damage. Despite dropping down the overall order, the #41 car managed to return to the race with its 3rd position in class intact. As the race entered the night stage the #40 car continued to hold on to the lead in the A5 class, while the #41 made considerable progress moving up the overall running order.
With a third of the race complete on the eighth hour, the #40’s impressive form also saw them take the overall lead of the race from the A6 class IMSA Performance MATMUT team’s #66 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR. Leading the race for almost two hours, the #40 eventually conceded the race lead to the faster Porsche at the cusp of the 10th hour.
Hour 12 – 24: Taking the fight to the Porsches, the #40 produced another strong stint to once again take the overall lead from #66 Porsche as the punishing race went past the half-way 12hour mark. Behind them, the team’s #41 BMW Z4M Coupé continued to move up the overall running order to close within the top five.
Though the overall race lead changed hands back in favour of the faster Porsche by the 14th hour, the team continued their strong run with the #40 leading the A5 class ahead of the Al-Faisal Racing team’s #2 BMW Z4M Coupé and their teammates in the #41 car. The same running order continued this way through the night stage of the race.
With two-thirds of the race completed, problems again struck the #41 car in the 16th hour forcing long pit stops. Despite returning to the race down the overall order, the drivers’ strong run in the earlier stages had helped to provide a comfortable gap to the next car in the A5 class as they retained their 3rd position in class.
Through the subsequent hours, the overall running order at the head of the field remained unchanged with the #40 comfortably leading the A5 Class and 2nd overall, ahead of the Al-Faisal team’s #2 BMW. The team’s #41 car’s earlier problems did little to dampen the drivers’ determination as they produced a spirited come-back to climb up the overall running order to move into the top five by the 19th hour.
Entering the final stages by mid-morning on Saturday, PST’s #40 car continued to lead the A5 class and defend its 2nd position in the overall running order with a two-lap gap to the Al-Faisal team. In the final hour, fortune turned against the team’s #41 car. With 40 minutes remaining in the race, a mechanical failure forced another long stop.
After 24 hours and more than 600 laps completed on the 5.39km Dubai Autodrome circuit; the consistent form of the drivers in the team’s #40 car paid off as the quartet of Hairuman, Yanagida, Taniguchi and Stuck claimed the chequered flag on Saturday to take the team’s first ever class win and a well-deserved 2nd place overall at the long and demanding 24Hours of Dubai. Though the #41 car were not able to return to the race following their problems in the final hour, they were classified as finishing 3rd in class, handing the PETRONAS Syntium Team a memorable 1 and 3 finish.
Full results HERE
David Wong, Team Principal, PETRONAS Syntium Team:
“This is our first win of 2010 and what a major landmark achievement for the PETRONAS Syntium Team especially at one of the toughest 24hour races in the world!! Coming here we knew we would be up against some of the best teams and drivers with a lot more experience at major endurance races than us. So, from the outset our objective was to learn and gain as much as we could. To come away with this result is simply amazing!
“It was a 24 hours sprint race actually and all our drivers did a truly magnificent job in really difficult and challenging race conditions! Every single person on the team has worked incredibly hard over the past several months to prepare for the 24 hours of Dubai and this result is for the entire team! We have proven that the PETRONAS Syntium Team is able to compete at the international level and we are incredibly proud of this achievement! I would like to thank each and every single person on the team, the drivers, fans and supporters, and most importantly our partners PETRONAS for the support and encouragement!”
Dubai 24 Hours Overall podium presentation. PST #40 finish 2nd. L to R PST drivers: Johannes Stuck (LIC), Masataka Yanagida (JPN), Fariqe Hairuman (MAS) and Nobuteru Taniguchi (JPN).
BMW Z4M Coupé No. 40 – A5 Class Champions (2nd Place Overall)
Laps completed: 605 laps
Fastest Lap: 2:05.594minutes (2nd fastest of the race)
Fariqe Hairuman (MAS)
“I am speechless!! I am so overcome with emotion and overjoyed with this win! It is an unbelievable achievement especially as this is the team’s and my first time coming to the 24 hours of Dubai! I want to first say Alhamdulillah and thank God for this; thank you to my family for their incredible support, David Wong and my teammates as well as the entire team. This win is the result of a team effort and we could not have done it without them! So this is their win! I also want to thank our partners PETRONAS for their encouragement. Actually I did not know what to expect coming here, as my 24-hour racing experience is limited to the Tokachi 24hours in 2007 and 2008 (Japan) especially compared to some of the drivers here this weekend! I came wanting to learn as much as I could and to come away with a class win is simply incredible! Thank you!”
Masataka Yanagida (JPN)
“This is definitely a memorable race win for me! It was not an easy race by any stretch of the imagination and to come away with a win is really great! This is my first time here in Dubai and like Fariqe, my only 24-hour experience was Tokachi! I was the starting driver here and it was so difficult with so many cars in the A6 class faster than us! Our aim was to focus on maintaining a consistent pace particularly in the early stages of the race as this is far more important than raw speed especially in a tough and long endurance race like this. My teammates Fariqe, Johannes and Taniguchi-san all did a great job and this allowed us to move up the running order. Everything worked well and the car felt great! Our strategy was to try and save the car as much as we could and by the middle stage we were even leading the race! Although we could not keep up pace-wise with the higher-powered A6 class factory-backed Porsches, we maintained our strategy to the end and we won! Thank you to David, the team management, our partners, my teammates and everyone on the team for a fantastic job!”
Nobuteru Taniguchi (JPN)
“Although I have had experience in long 24 hours endurance races before, this was my first time here in Dubai with the PETRONAS Syntium Team. It was quite a memorable experience especially racing with some of the world’s best endurance teams and drivers! It was definitely a difficult race for us and even felt like a very long sprint race as we had to maintain a high pace throughout the entire time! From the start we knew that we needed to have a consistent strategy, even more so being up against the other A5 class teams. I am happy that the strategy paid off and even more so that we managed to get the class win! Thank you to the team management, PETRONAS and everyone for a great result!
Johannes Stuck (LIC, guest driver)
“To come to Dubai joining the PETRONAS Syntium Team here in Dubai and come away with a win is simply amazing! I am so delighted with this result! We knew the competition was going to be really tough in our class but I have worked with this team before and the professionalism everyone has demonstrated was clearly a determining factor. My teammates did a really superb job throughout the race and I am glad that I was a part of this winning team! Thank you to David, the team management, PETRONAS and everyone on the team for what has been a memorable 24 Hours of Dubai!”
BMW Z4M Coupe No. 41 – 3rd place in Class (14th Overall)
Laps completed: 555 laps
Fastest Lap: 2:06.871mins
Tatsuya Kataoka (JPN)
“Congratulations to my teammates in the #40 car for the team’s very first win here at Dubai! As a race car driver the goal is to go out and achieve the best possible results. I was really excited about coming to Dubai for my very first time. At long and demanding races like this, one can never predict accurately what the outcome might be. For us, we started out really well and had a good qualifying session, with the fastest time in our class and well into the top-10. During the race, things started out well for us as we were able to stay in touch with the leading cars. There were also a lot teams and drivers here with a mix of amateur and professional drivers here this weekend. Somehow I think the gap between the pros and amateurs was probably too big as it was difficult and quite dangerous as we tried to manage the traffic. Things also started to go wrong for us relatively early on. We suffered a few collisions and mechanical failures that forced long pit stops as the crew worked to repair the car. When we came back, we were able to regain the positions but the failure at the end with less than an hour to go was disappointing for sure. The guys worked incredibly hard trying to fix the car and all credit to them!”
Manabu Orido (JPN, guest driver)
“First of all, I want to thank David Wong and the team management for giving me this chance to race with them here at the 24 Hours of Dubai. It was a pleasure and great being here with the team! Our target was to have a safe and clean race but sadly things did not turn out the way we planned. We had a lot of problems especially during the night stage and after that we could not catch the leaders anymore. I have to say thank you to the crew who were really busy this time fixing the car. Although at the end, we could not fix the car, I am still happy that we were classified and could complete a 1&3 finish for the team!”
Kosuke Matsuura (JPN, guest driver)
“To get this chance to race with the PETRONAS Syntium Team here at the 24 Hours of Dubai was really great especially as this team has a really great reputation back in Japan! Thank you to the team management and sponsors PETRONAS for this chance. Congratulations to our teammates in the #40 car for winning the race! We knew the competition would be tough against the factory-backed A6 class Porsches and the semi-factory backed BMWs even, but to come away with a win against all the odds is fantastic! It was really a pleasure to be here. Although it is a pity that we had all the problems during the race, in the end, I am happy that we could finish 3rd after a very tough race!
Johan Adzmi (MAS)
“I want to say thank you to PETRONAS, the PETRONAS Syntium Team and our team principal David Wong for giving me this invaluable chance to race here at the 24Hours of Dubai! This is my very first 24 hours race and it was such an amazing experience for me. To be able to drive along side my very experienced teammates Kataoka, Orido and Matsuura was fantastic as not only did they teach me a lot but also gave me the encouragement, which helped me build my confidence this weekend! We were quite unfortunate here as things did not go as planned. I had an incident during my stint but am pleased with my pace overall. I am glad that despite all the problems we had, we managed to get a 1&3 result for the team!”
Hiroki Yoshida (JPN)
“Congratulations to our teammates in the #40 car for such an amazing result! For us, we had quite a lot of problems during the race which is very unfortunate. During my stint, I was hit from behind and that cost a lot of time in the pits but the mechanics did a fantastic job to repair the car! Despite all the problems in the race, I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to race with the team here at Dubai. I have to say a big Thank you to our team boss David Wong, the management, my teammates, engineers and the crew for what was an amazing experience.”
Notes:
1. Class Division: A6 Petrol Class: 3,500 – 4,000 cc cars. A5 Petrol Class: 3,000 – 3,500 cc cars. A4 Petrol Class: 2,000 – 3,000 cc cars
2. Full Results are available online at http://live.24hseries.com/results.asp
3. Further information and details on the DUNLOP 24Hours of Dubai, full entry list, entry classification and race regulations can be foundat http://live.24hseries.com/default.asp
Report Supplied by: Petronas Motorsport
