Team ST Wangan Racing @ the Sepang 1000 KM.

Hailing from Singapore, Team ST Wangan were the new kids on the block of the Sepang 1000 Race. But to begin, ST Wangan is a JDM Performance Car and Racing Car Specialist that setup its roots in Malaysia a few years ago. They were formerly known as Wangan Racing and eventually forging a strong partnership with ST Powered in Singapore, thus becoming ST Wangan.

Fielding a Honda Civic EK9 was a good choice for a track weapon, but then again this was an endurance race and it was their first outing as a team so they had no idea what to expect except just to finish the race. At least that's what Kenneth Liang, Team Principal mentioned to me. He did not want to set any high levels of expectations as he knew the playing field would be filled with Colossus' from other teams. 

A step into their pit lane showed me the discipline, dedication and seriousness of the entire team from the drivers to the mechanics and the race control crew. Everything exuded professionalism down to the very last nut and bolt. The Civic looked awesome. The engine bay is neat with very nice choice performance bits like the Koyo Aluminium Radiator, Samco hoses, TRUST Oil Cooler and the Sard Regulator and other parts. The interior, purposeful with the RacePack racing monitor and data logger at the center of the dash to monitor all conditions throughout the race while giving feedback on laptimes to the pitwall and race control. The Team's Common room was no less impressive with TV's and LCD monitors that shows the Car No 22 and Car No 26's progress and positions.  

In qualifying, they made an impressive 4th placing in Class 2 and 8th overall ahead of most at the starting grid. With driver's Teh Kian Boon, Desmond Soh and their youngest driver Aloysius Lek at the helm, they managed a superb time of 2.38 in qualifying to come in 4th in class. They had their work cut out for them as this was an endurance race, not a sprint race. With qualifying so high up the grid, they raised their own bar and expectations surrounding them. 

By noon, the race was go go go and in the first lap they had some oil temperature issues which was reading very high and forced them to pit relegating them from a strong 8th place on the grid to the last place. After spending a few minutes in the pit, yellow car no. 22 roared and stormed out of the pit and the pursuit of a lifetime began. They began picking off each and every car on the grid and by halfway through the race, they were already in the top half of the field. A pit stops and drivers change later they swept into the top ten and maintained track position. A race of attrition, there were a number of cars who had broken transmissions and other problems saw Team ST Wangan climbing steadily up the leaderboard. Towards the final hours of the race, Team ST Wangan had already clinched 3rd place and was already ahead of most of the Class 1 cars. 

Towards the closing stages, in the final hour, they went up to 2nd place and looked to finish at that spot had it not being a fault with the ignition system that forced them to pit in the last few laps of the race to change another distributor coil. They re-joined the race in 3rd and maintained that position till the reached the chequered flag. 

A very strong and amazing finish from a rookie team with no experience in endurance racing and what's more amazing is that they fought hard, tooth-and-nail from last place to take the final spot on the podium. Spyder-Net.com is proud of this achievement and is even more so, to be the media partner for Team ST Wangan for the whole of the Sepang 1000 Race. This result is from the endless dedication, discipline and teamwork from the entire team.