The third round of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Malaysia Vios Gold Championship (Vios Challenge) at the PETRONAS Sepang International Circuit delivered high-stakes racing across all three classes, leaving the title battle wide open ahead of the season finale.
Season 9 of the one-make series offers a total prize purse of RM876,000. It is the longest running one-make production-based saloon car race series organized by a manufacturer in Malaysia.
Full circuit
Competing over the full-length circuit rather than half the track used in earlier rounds, a 37-car grid with Super Sporting, Sporting, and Rookie classes ran simultaneously in two races that lasted an hour each. With double championship points on the line, the combination of increased track traffic and longer running times forced overall point leaders to plan strategically to defend their positions.
Race 1 saw defending champion Freddie Ang of Telagamas Toyota execute a lights-to-flag victory in the elite Super Sporting Class, taking the chequered flag 5.9 seconds clear of RH Kalulong Motorsport’s Timothy Yeo, with former champion Mitchell Cheah of Team Prima Pearl SP Selatan finishing third.
In the amateur Sporting Class, Elson Lew of Hong Huat X Armada KK Racing secured a commanding victory by a 10.9-second margin over Saksama Motorsports’ Taj Izrin Aiman, while Axle Sports’ Aditya Patnaik took third. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Ethen Low dominated the Rookie Class, building an 18.7-second lead over runner-up Ervin Lim, followed by Imran Iskandar in third place.
Sunday’s Race 2 brought significantly more drama, with three separate Safety Car deployments dictating the flow of the event before it ultimately finished under caution.
The first incident occurred on lap 3 following a collision between Lim Chun Beng and Sophia Zara, followed by a second interruption on lap 15 involving Hendra Ade Putra. A third Safety Car was called out almost immediately upon restart after Loke Yin Yi and Ng Aik Sha collided along the back straight, disabling both cars on the track.
Despite the frequent race interruptions, Bradley Benedict of PS Harapan Menang converted his pole position into a Super Sporting Class victory, crossing the line just 0.5 seconds ahead of Mitchell Cheah, who claimed his second podium finish of the weekend. Kenneth Koh of PCM Group Racing Team placed third.
While the Safety Car repeatedly erased Benedict’s leads of up to 2.5 seconds, having clear track ahead without needing to actively defend allowed him to maintain control until the finish.
In the Sporting Class, Aditya Patnaik held his ground through the chaos to claim his second podium of the weekend, winning by 0.3 seconds ahead of G-Mart Motorsport’s Adam Mikail, with KMS 333 Motorsports’ Ariff Azmi taking third place. Ethen Low completed a weekend sweep in the Rookie Class by taking his second win, finishing 0.4 seconds ahead of Megat Damian Ariff and Ervin Lim.
The fourth and final round of the 2026 series is scheduled to take place in October.
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