Season 8 of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Malaysia Vios Challenge drew to a close with the crowning of three new overall champions after an intense and fiercely-fought 2 days of racing at the PETRONAS Sepang International Circuit.
The battle to crown the new overall champion in the Super Sporting Class was the toughest, but every category has its own drama and those who took the chequered flag truly earned their victories.
In the Super Sporting Class, the champion for the season was Telagamas Toyota’s Freddie Ang who clinched his first title after competing in all 8 seasons. Known as ‘Mr Consistent’ in the series, Ang had finished 3rd in 2024, 7th in 2023, 4th in 2022, 4th in 2021 and 3rd in 2020. This season, his victory came from collecting a total of 163 points, 13 points clear of runner-up Team Prima Pearl SP Selatan’s Mitchell Cheah who was denied of the opportunity to win his second consecutive overall title.
“We’ve been trying to do this for 8 straight seasons and finally, we won the elusive championship. It took us a while to do it but we finally got it! I would also like to thank Telagamas Toyota for continuing to believe in us throughout the past seasons – without their support we would not be here today,” said Ang, who took home RM80,000 in prize money
In the Sporting Class meanwhile, former Rookie Class driver Jwan Hii of Hong Huat X Armada KK Racing was the new champion. Hii went into the final round with a huge margin of 41 points ahead of his nearest rival – BAE Racing by ES Yang’s Elson Lew, also a former Rookie Class driver, and Kulim Topwheels’s Dato’ Dr. Ken Foo.
Two 4th place finishes in Race 1 and Race 2 were enough to consolidate his position for the championship and he won it with a massive 167 points – 47 points clear of Foo who eventually rallied into the runner-up position, with Lew concluding Season 8 in 3rd place.
“It’s been a really tough journey for me coming back to the motorsports scene especially after a 4-year gap upon graduating from the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Malaysia Young Talent Development Program. I never expected to return to a very strong season and I am very happy with how things turned out,” said 23-year old Hii who will now be in the Super Sporting Class for the next season.
The Rookie Class was for new drivers who graduated from the 2025 Young Talent Development Program. Going into the final round of the season, the title could have gone to any 4 drivers – Justin Rahul Dev, Ian James, Aydan Khaliq and Harkiesh Geeva. It was Justin who outdid his fellow rookies to be the new Rookie champion.
“Right from the get-go, I always knew that I had the pace and what it takes to fight for the championship – but back then it was a lot of ego-based. I set the standards so high for myself and I benchmarked myself against the other young Malaysian professional drivers to understand what it takes to perform at their level,” said the 21-year old simulator racer from Johor.
Justin now moves up one class to the Sporting Class and hopes to be able to get a seat for Season 9. “Moving forward, I want this to be a long-term project for myself. I’d like to hopefully become one of the more successful drivers transitioning from simulator racing to real-life racing. I’ll definitely be investing a lot more time into racing, both on track and on the simulators, improve on my fitness and work to develop my social media footprint. For a driver to become great – and this is proven with all the all-time great drivers – one must devote 100% of himself to racing and that is precisely what I intend to do,” he said.
“Congratulations to our new champions, all the drivers, teams and participating dealers who have been instrumental in making the Vios Challenge one of the most competitive one-make racing series in Malaysia. As with previous seasons, the battle for the championship title went all the way to the final race of the year and this underlines the competitiveness of the series which emphasizes on race craft and driving skills (the men behind the machines) in line with Toyota’s aspiration and pursuit in developing talent – both drivers and technical personnel – and using motorsports as an impactful platform to achieve this,” said Datuk Ravindran K., President of UMW Toyota Motor.
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