Season 7 Round 1 of Toyota Gazoo Racing starts Aug 9-11

SHAH ALAM: The seventh successive season of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival featuring the Vios Challenge one-make series starts with Round 1 in Aug 9-11.

The challenge which consists of three rounds and a total of six individual races at the Petronas Sepang International Circuit this season offers RM630,000 in prize monies with international drivers participating for the very first time.

Season 7 will also see the debut of the latest generation Toyota Vios as race cars.

The new Vios continues to be powered by a 1.5-litre engine with a five-speed manual transmission but is enhanced with a more rigid and stable all-new platform as well as revised aerodynamics.


These chassis enhancements make the new race car more planted in corners, more responsive to driver input and capable of even faster lap times.

The introduction of the new model also underlines UMW Toyota Motor’s commitment to the Toyota Vios Challenge series for the next four seasons.

The opening round of the Toyota Vios Challenge from Aug 9-11 will run concurrently with the Malaysia Championship Series (MCS).

The race, however, will be broadcasted live to fans, enthusiasts and members of the public.

The race will also feature three classes of racing - Sporting Class for amateurs and gentlemen racers; Super Sporting Class for professionals and the TGR Rookie Class.


Meanwhile, Round 2 is scheduled for Sept 27-29 and Round 3 from Jan 3-5, all to be held at the Sepang track.

UMW Toyota Motor president Datuk Ravindran K said the company's involvement from the very beginning had been with the objective of contributing to Malaysian motorsports.

"We have embarked on numerous initiatives over the past six seasons.

"This included bringing motorsports to the masses via street racing circuits; making the series more accessible to participants in the form of retaining the one-make race format; establishing the series as the most lucrative racing event in Malaysia; and introducing the Toyota GR Young Talent Development Program for young drivers who are transitioning from karting and simulator racing to saloon car racing.


"Moving forward, this contribution will now be extended even further in the form of elevating the status and profile of the series. The first is by incorporating it into the national Malaysia Championship Series (MCS).

"Secondly, we also have the privilege of now accepting international drivers to join the series and Season 7 will see the participation of drivers from Singapore, Thailand and India for the very first time," he said.

The Vios Challenge is the most watched local racing series with more almost 30 million spectators (online via live broadcast and on-ground) since it was first introduced in 2017.

This has been largely due to its format which will remain unchanged as a one-make series, to preserve fair play, provide a level playing field and to ensure that the racing remains as close as ever, emphasising on skill, race craft and technical preparation.

Returning to the Super Sporting Class in Season 7 includes former three-time overall champion Tengku Djan Ley Tengku Mahaleel; defending class champion Mitchell Cheah; and big guns in Malaysian racing who include Eddie Lew, William Ho, Tom Goh and Freddie Ang.

The Super Sporting Class will also see the participation of young drivers Putera Adam, brothers Naquib and Nabil Azlan – all three of whom were former Rookie Class drivers and champions -, Bradley Benedict, Ady Rahimy, Aman Nagdev from India.


The Sporting Class meanwhile will see familiar names like Datuk Dr Ken Foo, Kenneth Koh, Dannies Ng, Shafiq Samsudin, Ricky Tan and Lim Chun Beng returning to the grid.

Also joining will be young drivers Elson Lew who was last year’s Rookie Class runner-up, Amirul Haikal, Timothy Yeo and Ashen Arumugan.

Competing in the Toyota Vios Challenge for the first time will also be Panithan Rakpaibulsombut from Thailand and Singaporean Daniel Inosuke Ooi.

The newest batch of TGR Rookies who will be joining the Toyota Vios Challenge Season 7 will be the fourth intake of young drivers who have graduated from the Gazoo Racing Young Talent Development Program.

The Rookie drivers includes: 22-year-old recreational karter Brandon Ho; 18-year-old pro karter Adam Mikail; 22-year-old recreational karter Amirul Afiq; 17-year-old pro karter Audrey Leong; 21-year-old simulator racer Raja Amirul (talent discovered from Toyota GR GT Cup Campus Tour 2023); and 19-year-old recreational karter Kingston Tan.