The atmosphere was charged with excitement as the tenth edition of the 12 hour Merdeka Endurance Race was off,  flagged off by Motorsport Association of Malaysia Chairman Dato’ Azman Yahya ten minutes after the National anthem was played.

He was accompanied by Sepang International Circuit (SIC) Chairman Datuk Mokhzani Mahathir, SIC CEO Razlan Razali, Automobile Association of Malaysia Chairman Tunku Mudzaffar and Petronas Motorsports General Manager Anita Azrina Abdul Aziz.

Defending champion team Porsche Club Singapore stalled at the start and failed to go for the formation lap, resulting in losing its pole position and degraded to start the race from the pit lane as the last car.

Fighting back the team managed to overtake the group and was up to second place when disaster struck in what looks like a rear suspension failure forcing them to pit in 45 minutes into the race.

One hour into the race the 2007 overall champion, team Kencana Racing driven by Sven Herberger, Tunku Hammam Sulong and Datuk Mokhzani Mahathir in a Porsche 911 GT3 is leading with 29 laps followed closely by team LKM Racing.

At the second hour and 53 laps, the lead have been taken over by BMW Z4 team Petronas Syntium car number 28 driven by Tatsuya Kataoka, Manabu Orido, Johan Adzmi.

Their team mate Nobuteru Taniguchi, Masataka Yanagida, and Fariqe Hairuman also in a Z4 competition number 15 and Kencana Racing dropped to third place.

“It’s a 12 hour endurance race; its 25 percent technical, 25 percent skill and 50 percent luck. Anything could happen in the next few hours,” said SIC CEO Razlan.

The MMER will finish at 11.30 this evening.

Starting grid can be viewed at : http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=1252728 

• Winner
• Top 10