SERDANG: It was a stark difference from Day 1 of racing as drivers battled for position with tooth and nail during Round 2 of the Toyota Vios Challenge, held at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) today.

Before this weekend's conclusion, it would be four months before racing resumes in February 2019 and it seemed as though each driver was looking to end the race on a high, that had spectators right on the edge of the seats.

First to take to the grid were the professional drivers of the Super Sporting category, which apparently put a stop to racing just two corners into the race when Kegani Racing’s car 39 of William Ho, who finished in second on Day 1, overturned after coming into contact with Telagamas Toyota’s car 3 of Freddie Ng.

Thankfully, Ho managed to crawl out of the wreckage and waved to fans before walking away unhurt.

The incident caused a 30 minute delay as officials worked to remove the wreckage blocking the track while rectifying the damaged barrier.

At the restart, Ng who started from second on the grid, found himself ahead of pole sitter Kenny Lee in car 38 with Brendan Paul Anthony (car 91) in third place. Lee kept his car glued to the tail-end of Ng's car.

Two laps later, karma struck as Ng - in trying to pull away from Lee, pushed his Vios J racecar a little too hard and ended up contacting the barrier at the very same spot where he came together with Ho.

Again the safety car was dispatched as Lee lead the field until the end, with Brendan taking second and race 1's winner Boy Wong in car 21 taking third.

The first race of the day practically set the level of competitiveness as the semi-professional Sporting category took their places to begin racing.

As the lights went out, Team Nanoplus driver Patrick Tam in car 13 shot ahead of the field from pole position to lead the race from Distinctive Model’s Clement Yeo in car 98 and Prodigy Racing’s 14-year-old Hayden Haikal in car 11.

While Tam set the pace for the rest to catch up, Yeo found himself defending heavily from the Hayden's onslaught to get past and the two racers eventually made contact after six laps,

This caused Hayden to drop to fourth and later incur a 10 second penalty to put him out of competitive contention, while race 1 winner Kenneth Koh in car 28- who lay in waiting, managed to move up into third.

Unfortunately, Koh had to concede his third place soon after and had to pit and repair a damaged bumper from an an earlier contact with Hayden - putting Koh out of contention as well.

Meanwhile, on lap six itself, the safety car was dispatched due to an incident involving Adzeem Eqwan in car 2 for five laps, after which Tam led the pack with Yeo in second and ST Wangan Racing Team’s Eric Yong (car 22) in third place until the end of the race.

As for the Promotional category, singer Aiman Tino in car 77 managed to clinch his first race victory and second consecutive podium finish over the weekend following yesterday’s third place finish.

Although the 20-year-old was placed third position on the grid, he again repeated his strong start to lead the race into the first corner, with car 46's fellow singer Akim Ahmad in close pursuit and car 1 of UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd deputy chairman Akio Takeyama in third.

Chasing in fourth place was race 1’s winner television host and presenter Nabil Ahmad in car 83 with car 15 of actress Diana Danielle in fifth. The top five contenders remained unchanged for three laps until Takeyama was handed a 10-second penalty for a starting offence.

Later, Takeyama managed to escape any hurt after he was involved in an incident when Nabil’s overtaking move, which sent him careening into the concrete barrier to bringing out the safety car.

Nabil later crossed the finish line in third place, but was also served a 20-second penalty for the incident to put him down in sixth - promoting Diana into third place for her second podium finish.

With the conclusion of Round 2 at MAEPS, all energies will now be focused into preparing for Round 3 and will be held at the Batu Kawan Stadium in Penang in February 2019.

The two-day Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival had an array of activities for fans and spectators that included the preview and public test drive of the all-new Toyota Rush as well test drives of other current models, promotions and celebrity performances.

Other activities included a fun run around the 1.99km street circuit, a concert by the Toyota Gazoo Racing celebrities, a Superfans Signing Session, a pit walkabout, the appearance by the world famous Baby Shark mascot, display and sales of merchandise booths, stage games, the gathering of car clubs, a Gran Turismo simulator racing challenge anchored by Shawn Lee, and a drift performance by professional Japanese drifters from Toyo Tyres.

Also, college artists Yaulacap managed to beat eight other participants to take home RM3,000 during the Mural competition.

Visitors to the Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival were also in the running for attractive prizes in a lucky draw that gave away a Macbook Air, an iPad mini as well as petrol and shopping vouchers.

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