When all the drivers in the MSF line up on their starting grid come 27 November, fans can look forward to a thrilling finale as the decisions are still out in the drivers’ titles. With the exception of Special Kei, in other categories, the fight for each title will be taken down to the season finale, and to be the best drivers in the series championship.
Here we take a look at the two hotly contested categories which features some of Malaysia’s finest touring car drivers.
In the Saga Cup former Super Taikyu champion Farique Hairuman had a good start to the series when he scored big, albeit with some fight with Alif Hamdan in the first round. Going into round 2 Farique had additional stiff rivals from Tengku Djan and Boy Wong, both making their debut in the category. Although Tengku Djan controlled the race with Farique having to fend off the attacks from Boy Wong, he held on to his second position and keeping his championship hopes alive.
In Round 3 Enduro it was a nightmarish outing for both Farique and Tengku Djan as they had some misfortunes which could have seen them both taking the championship fight down to the wire. Due to their problems this elevated Alif Hamdan and Boy Wong in terms of championship points and would still have some chance of clinching the overall title.
As it stands now Farique is still leading the championship with 695 points followed by Alif Hamdan with 570 and Boy Wong with 540 points.
As for the Race Cars Open category, the MSF Enduro saw the demise of several main championship title contenders after a few laps of some spectacular racing. This factor has tremendously open up the fight for the championship.
In the race Keifli (Fast Autoworks) looks set to be in a position to lead the championship standings after this round, but was sidelined due to engine failure. Then it could have been plain sailing for team LMC Engineering’s Shazul Hisham, the category’s points leader to maintain his prime position which would have given him an advantage to seal the championship, but he too faltered with technical issues.
The attention then moves to Faidzil Alang who had the speed with his Fast Lap Autoworks Honda Civic, and capitalising on his rivals retirements and leading the race. As fate would have it, he too retired which further open the doors to two teams which were perhaps looking for these sort of opportunity to fight for the championship. Drivers Pee Sau Peng from Fast Autoworks and Syahrizal from F Tuned Racing must be absolutely delighted with their Enduro results as before this, they were outside of contention for the championship title.
The current standings shows that Shazul is still leading but not by a wide margin with 555 points followed by Sau Peng on 475 points and Syahrizal with 440 points which is on par with team DNT’s Ahmad Akil.
It’s still hard to gauge but if we look at the Enduro round, consistency in finishing the race is vital for these drivers and should the outcome be the same for the current top 4 drivers who are in contention, than mathematically Keifli and Faidzil might still be able to grab the title. We’ll just have to wait come November 27.
Who will become the 2016 MSF champion in their categories? These are the questions that will be answered at Sepang Circuit during the final MSF meeting of the season.