The 2014 Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race got off to a flying start at 12 o’clock at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, and proved to be one of the most reliable races with only three DNFs from the

This weekend the word ‘dominance’ can be spelt c-l-e-a-r-w-a-t-e-r. The mighty Ferrari 458 of the current MME champions Clearwater Racing was never in danger of losing top spot, charging away from the green light and never looking back, crossing the finish line one lap ahead of the team’s second car, number 12.

The win gives Clearwater Racing their second consecutive title and puts team lead driver Mok Weng Sun in the record books as only the third driver in the 15 year history of the MME to win two consecutive titles with the same team.

It was also a special first MME 12 hour win for young Malaysian driver Alif Hamdan. This success comes on top of his recent nomination for the Porsche International Scholarship Shoot Out.

Speaking of the teams faultless win Weng tells us “It’s unbelievable, I think it’s the first time ever were we had a race when we went maximum driving time for each stint we were out there. No mistakes out on the circuit, no mistakes in the pit stops, and we broke our track lap record from last year by two laps. The only thing that slowed us down was the safety cars and it’s the first time I’ve ever experienced a perfect race.”

The Ferrari 458 of Clearwater dominated the start pulling away by more than 5 car lengths by turn one of the first lap. The team went on to secure the best overall lap time for every hour of the race. First driver Gianmaria Bruni talks us through the opening stages of the race, “I made a good start and after that the car was very consistent. Then we had a safety car and everyone was bunched up but I was able to pull away again.”

By the end of the first hour the Aston Martin 007 of Craft-Bamboo Racing had drop to third after their pit stop, with the Audi of MPC climbing to second from a 6th position grid start. For the rest of the race Craft-Bamboo maintained a strong third position, fending off the Audi R8 number 99.

The Sport and Touring Class pole sitter Jim Hunter Motorsport had some major problems at the start that saw them drop from first to 25th. “We had a couple of bizarre problems, the power steering fluid boiled and almost locked the steering up, so we brought the car in and replaced the steering rack and the power steering pump”, explained team boss Jim. “We went back out and had the same problem. With no power steering it’s physically very hard to drive.”

Team NZ car #777 have been one of the most consistent teams in the first two hours gaining a sport to 11th and maintaining a strong consistent pace. This consistency and tight team work paid off as they charged through to win the GTC class with Graeme Dowsett, John Curran, Will Bamber and Yuey Tan. Speaking of the teams hard fought win, Graeme tells us “All four of us came out of that car practically half dead. It was extremely, extremely hot in that car. We had a really good race strategy and all our drivers basically kept to that and we managed to get all the way through with a very good pit crew; no mistakes from them.”

Audi #69 of Absolute Racing is another car that has had some major problems at the start, dropping from pole to 25th, achieving only 5 laps in the first hour. Team boss Ingo Matter told us what was going on, “We had some electronic problems unfortunately, but last year it was also quite big gaps towards the end because it is a twelve hour race. But the car is running fine now and we’re lapping quite fast, so it’s time to play catch up I guess.”

B-Quik racing was the team that saw the most action with two of their drivers having minor spins, one after a slight touch from the lead cars lapping them. They persisted despite some challenges on the circuit to bring their Audi R8 home in second position in the GTC class.

The race was slowed down three times due to the safety car coming out for small incidents that didn’t result in retirements. The first four hours of the race saw a number of cars coming for some minor attention to mechanical problems, but rejoining with confidence. Albeit the Daytona Sportscar who had to come into the pits at 3 o’clock to replace the engine.

Drama unfolded at the fifth hour with when Absolute Racing Audi number 101 spun off at turn 6, parking in the gravel trap and unable to move. Immediately a couple of the German mechanics took a scooter to the crash site to survey the car. Unfortunately the mechanics forgot about the rule forbidding them to enter the track and visit their damaged cars, thus the stewards had to disqualify them.

The drivers were frustrated and the team appealed, accepting to be disqualified from the final results but requesting to be allowed to continue to race, that was not granted by the stewards.

Craft-Bamboo was holding onto third with the #99 Audi of Absolute Racing breathing down their necks with MPC’s Audi battling it out with sixth place Nexus Racing.

During the 9th and 10th hours the top 10 positions remained unchanged and it was the Sport and Touring Class that was producing changes with JC Racing pushing their Honda Civic two places past the Renault Clio of Modena Motorsport and the Honda Civic of ST Powered. Unfortunately that promising run came to an end at 10:30 when the #8 car had to retire due to a blown engine.

Around this time the clouds were tempting the Sepang Circuit, releasing a light drizzle, but nothing too serious for the cars to pit for a change of tyres. The spectators and paddock guests welcomed the drizzle that brought with it a light, cooler breeze.

In good MME fashion, on the stroke of the 11th hour we witnessed drama in the pits as the third place Aston Martin 007 of Craft-Bamboo Racing was pushed into it’s garage with a wheel hub problem. The team lost one lap and were overtaken by Absolute Racing car #99, bumping them down to fourth.

This turned out to be the battle of the race as Stefan Mucke pushed the Aston Martin as hard as possible to regain the lost lap and close the gap to the Audi by only 5 seconds in the final 10 minutes of the race.

Unable to catch Alex Imperatori in the Audi Craft-Bamboo had to settle for fourth, just missing out once again on a podium finish at the MME.

After the chequered flag, race promoter Ian Geekie was more than pleased with the weekend event stating “it was a great weekend with some fantastic racing from the best drivers in Asia and endurance racing. After the excitingly close qualifying session I knew we would be watching another special MME. I would like to thank the PPM team and the Sepang International Circuit for putting together such a great event. A big thanks to Asia Motorsport Development for their media support and a huge thanks to all the teams and drivers who endured the extreme heat and humidity to give us such a great fight. I can’t wait until next year.”

The 2014 Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race proved to be one of the most reliable with only 6 retirements from the 28 cars that started.

Race highlights and team interviews will be viewable on www.sepang12hour.com from Tuesday.