Vios Challenge 2025 Sees Milestone Set With Endurance Race

The Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) Malaysia Vios Challenge 2025 saw its second round get underway last weekend at SIC as part of the Super GT Malaysia 2025 Festival.

The second round of the Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) Malaysia Vios Challenge 2025 got underway and reached a new milestone last weekend.

For the first time, the series shared the asphalt with the return of Japan’s Super GT Malaysia 2025 to the PETRONAS Sepang International Circuit (SIC) – the Vios Challenge stood as one of two official one-make support races held which.

This arguably marked a turning point for the series, which found its place in the local grassroots motorsports front having ran for eight seasons continuously now.

The series opened to live spectators for the first time this season, and fans in attendance were treated with a spectacle of close, nail-biting and dramatic racing.

Additionally, the Vios Challenge 2025’s appearance at Super GT Malaysia 2025 marked the first time this season that the series opened itself to spectators as opposed to its usual online live stream affair. Certainly, the weekend’s 75,977 spectators recorded across three days were treated with a spectacle, and for good reasons.

Firstly, this round saw racers tackle SIC in its full 5.5 KM layout instead of the usual and shorter North or South halves. Secondly, series organisers elected to switch things up by contesting under a rare and demanding one-hour endurance race format instead of it usual 10-lap sprints. Two were held, one on Friday, and another on Saturday.

Thirdly, the endurance race format also called for ALL 36 drivers from all three classes – Super Sporting, Sporting and Rookie – to race and compete simultaneously, thus upping the challenge further here. All these factors led to arguably one of the series’ most tightly contested outings featuring even tighter door-to-door racing duels.

Adding to the spectacle was the choice to contest under a one-hour endurance race format featuring all 36 drivers and cars from all three classes racing simultaneously.

Friday’s Race 1 saw Freddie Ang and the Telagamas Toyota team chart victory in the Super Sporting Class for pro-drivers. Wheelcorp’s Nabil Azlan placed second just 0.7 secs behind, followed by team Toyotsu Racing driver William Ho in third.

The i for semi-pro drivers saw Hong Huat X Armada KK Racing team’s Jwan Hii chart a dominating class win from pole position. Placing second was Datuk Ken Foo piloting the Kulim Top Wheels machine, followed by Thai driver Varunchit Wattanathanakun who finished third in class.

Race 1 would also see a dramatic finish for the Rookie Class featuring up-and-coming youngsters. Harkiesh Geeva missed out on a potential victory due to mechanical issues, thus granting the win to Aydan Khaliq instead. Harkiesh would eventually settled for third place whilst Justin Rahul Dev placed second ahead of him.

The endurance format challenged both men (and women) and machine whilst spurring some close door-to-door racing action too.

In Saturday’s Race 2, it was Mitchell Cheah from Team Prima Pearl SP Selatan that scored a commanding win in the Super Sporting Class. Coming in second was Ady Rahimy driving for the Laser Motor Racing team, followed Race 1 winner Freddie Ang who settled for third place this time around.

There were new winners in the Sporting class for Race 2 as well in the form of BAE Racing by ES Yang. The team celebrated a 1-2 finish charted by drivers Justin Toh and Elson Lew respectively, whilst third place was once again claimed by Thai driver Varunchit.

Lastly, the Rookie Class saw Justin Rahul Dev clinch his first race win in Race 2. He had fended off the advances of young lady driver Genevieve Ooi who logged a career-best finish in second, whereas Race 1 winner Aydan settled for third.

Winners across all three classes claiming their trophies and prizes on Saturday.

All in all, Round 2 of TGR Malaysia Vios Challenge 2025 (Season 8) had it all – nail-biting close racing with a dash of drama to boot. The fact that the drivers got to put on a show in front of a larger than the series’ usual audience was perhaps the biggest bonus too.

Round 3 will take place next from Aug 8 to Aug 10 where it will run as part of the new Malaysia Touring Car Championship round (formerly MCS) before concluding with a fourth round slated in Oct.