Team News - Tan scores 5th in MME with Team Machine

29 year old Singaporean race driver, Yuey Tan competed in his first Merdeka Millennium Endurance race almost three weeks ago. The race event was held on the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumper, Malaysia.

Team Machine, a squad with the Volkswagen Scirocco Cup invited Tan to drive with the team some months ago alongside Asia GT3 veterans Sam Yau and Michael Lee in their race car.

"I met Sam on the flight from Ordos to Beijing in our last PCCA round. Darryl (O'Young) was sitting in between us and made the introduction. Great guy, cool fella.Spoke  about the MME with Sam, and that he was running a car and we spoke about driving. It was an easy decision to make." said Tan.

Though Team Machine races primarily in China, the MME and the Sepang circuit have been part of their racing calendar for 2011, giving the chance for the team to work with some key members of the Singaporean automotive scene.

Taking the role of team boss for the 12 hour endurance event was Kenneth Yeo, ex- Singaporean Olympian and the current Singapore Karting Championship series director. Eurohaus chief, Colin Chow ran engineering, his massive VW knowledge coming of great value throughout the race with tyros, brakes and maintenance throughout the race.

"It's great to see Ken and Colin running the team during the MME. We all know they are good in their jobs when we give them time to do this. Though for them to do it well during the race weekend is something else. It was 12 hours, we were tired and no mistakes we made by the team. A great effort from everyone involved!"

The number 83 Team Machine car of American Sam Yau, Singaporean driver Yuey Tan and Hong Kong's own, Michael Lee went out for practice on Thursday, giving a majority of the mileage to Tan and Lee as both drivers had not driven the VW Scirocco Cup prior to this event. Being a FWD, this took several laps to adapt for the drivers though it was soon that Tan was on the pace of the other VW drivers.

Qualifying took place on the Friday, having 30 minutes for each driver to qualify the car. The starting grid spot then, determined by the combined times of all three drivers, put us in 12th in a car that started to show signs of problems. This resulted in the car becoming inconsistent and impacting our laptimes.

The 12 hour endurance race started on September 17th at midday and scheduled to finish at midnight. Sam Yau was behind the wheel for the first stint of the race, starting the race from a rolling start.

During the race, the weather started rather warm though a vast majority of the race was in good conditions; the best that could be hoped for at the Sepang International Circuit. This made the car run well as the drivers tried to preserve the car and tyres while still pushing to be competitive.

In an overall race that saw 45 entrants and 20 cars in category, the number 83 Team Machine Car fought hard from behind to score a 5th place in class and 18th overall.

"It was a very long race but an enjoyable one nevertheless. A lot was going on and in between doing a good strategy and making the car last the distance, we all started to get a little more tired toward the event."

While lead driver Sam Yau led by example running a total of five stints, Yuey also put in four stints while Michael ran three. "This was all part of the strategy. Some of us drove the car better on a certain set of variables so we drove a lot based on the cars condition, to get the best driver for the best condition. It all worked out well in the end!!"

"Was a big team effort," concluded Tan. "Can't wait for MME 2012! It's going to be awesome."