The 2017 Malaysian Speed Festival (MSF) is taking shape with the first round starting on 26th February at the Sepang International Circuit. This season’s MSF will feature an expanded program which will include 2 additional rounds and full 2-day events.
During the inaugural MSF 2016 season, statistics revealed that the series was popular with new competitors and has also attracted a high number of top Malaysian race car drivers. Their participation in the MSF has made the series one of the biggest National race series in Malaysia with an average of 140 – 150 cars competing in every round. The on-track race action were the highlights of the MSF which kept the large number of fans on their feet, and normally feature different race winners in every round. This consequently brought the championship battles for most of the categories titles down to the dramatic final race in the 2016 season.
Head of MSF organisation Adien Yein is optimistic that the 2017 season will be even greater based on the feedback from both the competitors and the fans. “Immediately after 2016 season ended, we’ve been having constant dialogue with the competitors as it’s very important for us to make the series even more successful. We may see a further increase of competitors in certain categories as we’ve tweaked the regulations a little bit so as to make it easier for anyone to go racing, and the response has been very positive, so things are looking pretty good at this moment,” said Adian.
Aside from the minor changes in the regulation the biggest changes would be the official tyres competitors would be running in the 2017 MSF. HANKOOK is now the official tyre for the 2017 series and test have shown that there are performance gain in terms of a faster lap times and better durability, and this should be reflected in the competitors racing form once the MSF series gets underway.
The 2017 MSF series championship will retain previous season’s categories and with most of last season’s competitors already announcing their participation for this season. Two categories which has already become the ‘premier league’ of the series, Race Cars Open and Saga Cup will see the return of it’s main contenders. With news of them getting their cars updated, this would see another explosive fight amongst the contenders in 2017. And this is especially for the brothers duo Pee Sau Peng and Pee Sau Fan who are the inaugural champion in the Race Car Category, where they would have to step up their game should they want to retain the the 2016 Professor Khalid Championship Cup.
MSF Racing 2017 Provisional Calendar
Round 1: 26 February
Round 2: 16 April
Round 3: 20+21 May*
Round 4: 30 July
Round 5: 17 Sept
Round 6: 2+3 Dec*
*full-weekend carnival events
The two full-weekend carnival events will feature the return of MegaLAP Time Attack, now compiled together under the Malaysia Speed Festival banner. MSF MegaLAP will feature mostly daily-driven street-based cars going at it one at a time to set as fast a lap as possible, with many categories that should encompass the majority of the enthusiasts out there.
MSF 2017 will kick off on Sunday 26th February 2017 at Sepang F1 Circuit, be sure not to be there for the action!