9z Racing, which was teamed up by Hong Kong racers Marco Wong and Kylo Yim, took a commanding victory in the FRD LMP3 5 Hour Esports Endurance Race at Sepang Circuit.
They finished 50 seconds ahead of their nearest rival, Lallave Motorsports Project (LMP) from the Philippines. 3rd place goes to Legion of Racers, who fought for the lead with 9z Racing in the last hour, but an extra fuel stop made them tumbled down the order.
The inaugural FRD LMP3 5 Hour Endurance
Race started at 1:30pm local time on 30 January 2021. Pole-sitter 9z Racing, which was driven by
Marco Wong in the opening stint, took an early lead, followed by LMP’s Terrence
Lallave. 3rd position was in the thick of battle between multiple
teams, including China’s Climax Racing, Hong Kong’s PRP 01 and Gravity
Transfer, which were partnered by Clio Cup’s Champion and runners up Ho Sek Yin
and Tianyang Zhang. However, all 3 of them were involved in incidents in the
first hour, losing valuable time as a result.
After the first routine pit stop, LMP
overtook 9z Racing and took the lead. 9z Racing remained in close contact with
the leader, while Gravity Transfer and Legion of Racers started to close back
in to the top 3 after taking an alternative pit stop sequence. In the middle of
the race, Gravity Transfer even took the lead after the leader took their pit
stop respectively. Unfortunately, a slow pit stop by Gravity Transfer due to
network problem meant they lost over 30 seconds and thus fell out of
contention.
9z Racing re-took the lead after the 3-hour
mark and started to pull out a comfortable gap. In the closing hour of the
race, Legion of Racer’s Dillan Tan set some blistering lap time and closed in
to the leader. He took the lead after 9z Racing’s Marco Wong was blocked by an
incident. Dillan Tan then started to pull away but when he came across the PRP
01 car driven by Jactin Chung, he was hit from behind and lost the lead back to
Marco Wong. PRP 01 team was given a drive through penalty for this incident.
However, it was all academic as of Legion
of Racer’s chance of winning as they have to take an extra fuel stop in the
closing minutes, meaning that they have to surrender this battle for the lead
as well as the 2nd place. Legion of Racers tried to catch up by
taking on the soft tires but it was all too late. 9z Racing’s Marco Wong and
Kylo Yim took victory, while LMP’s Terrance Lallave and Jether Miole was
second, just merely ahead of Legion of Racers’ Dillan Tan and Javier Lai.
Ho Sek Yin and Tianyang Zhang’s Gravity
Transfer took 4th, while star-studded line up Jactin Chung and Kato
Jim’s PRP 01 can only managed 8th, after being involved in incidents
during the race.
It was a very exciting and fruitful
afternoon for all of the participants, as many of them were taking part in a
race for the first time in this inaugural FRD LMP3 Esports Endurance Race. We
will be back soon with more esports and motorsports actions. Stay tuned!
