Fariqe Hairuman and Syafiq Ali drove their Proton Iriz to the top of the podium in the 181-lap race, simultaneously getting the first major win for the car as well as a fourth S1K title for R3.
By winning the 2018 race, Proton and R3 set new records for the S1K.
A fourth overall victory means R3 is the most successful team in the event’s history.
It was also the fifth time a Proton car crossed the finish line in first place while the Proton Iriz is the fourth different Proton model to win following victories by the Proton Satria Neo in 2012, Proton Prevé in 2014 and Proton Suprima S in 2016 and 2017.
Both achievements are records and making things even sweeter, this was the third time Syafiq Ali won the race, making him the most successful driver in S1K history.
Going further back in history, Proton also has three additional victories in Malaysian endurance racing events. R3 won the 2005 and 2006 Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race (MME) while the Proton Eon Racing Team (PERT) were the winners of the inaugural MME event in 2000.
“The 2018 S1K was a tough and exciting race run in hot weather conditions at a very fast pace. There were many lead changes with multiple safety car periods adding to the complexity of our race strategy. We managed to get a good lead over the rest of the field with 40 laps to go and thankfully we were able to then stretch our advantage to over 2 minutes at the end of the race,” said Gary Lee, team principal of Proton R3.
A key partner and sponsor to R3 is Petronas which supplies lubricants to the team.
R3 was also the most well supported team at S1K as evidenced by the sea of fans dressed in yellow team t-shirts seated in the grandstand during the race.
An estimated 2,000 R3 supporters comprising Proton car clubbers, vendors, dealers and even bankers attended the event and their support helped push the team to success.
“At Proton, we truly believe motorsports improves our products. It’s not easy to succeed in a race like the S1K as cars have to run flat out for nearly 9 hours, but our wins prove Proton cars have exceptional handling and are engineered to perform even when driven in such extreme conditions. To be both fast and reliable is very difficult, so when we manage to achieve it we make sure what we learn on the racetrack is transferred to our cars on the road,” said Abdul Rashid Musa, CEO of Proton Edar.
