KUALA LUMPUR(18.1.2022): A team from Southeast Asia showed the global motorsport community that racers from the region are forced to be reckoned with when they finished fourth at the biggest sim racing competition in the world, the 24 Hours Le Mans Virtual.
Axle Sports, founded by former Formula 1 driver Alex Yoong, fielded two teams in the competition which saw a high-profile grid of racers including current Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen, Juan Pablo Montoya and some of the best esports drivers in the world.
In the LMP category, car #21 of team SEM9 Flash Axle was piloted by racers Naquib Azlan from Malaysia and Inigo Anton from the Philippines as well as gamers Mohammad Aleef of Singapore and Josh Purwien from Australia.
Azlan, fresh of his win at the Southeast Asia eSports Championships, put the Oreca 07 LMP 2 in 6th place after starting in 8th. However, within the first 3 hours, the team was penalised with a drive-through penalty for hitting a backmarker and dropped to 12th.
Aleef took over for the second stint and the Singaporean racer together with Anton and Purwien steadily climbed back up the grid, putting the team in a solid 5th place in the final hours. Azlan took the driver’s seat again six hours before the end of the race and engaged in a furious battle with car #49 of YAS HEAT which he finally won. Aleef took the penultimate stint, and Anton got in for the final hour, holding off intense pressure from YAS HEAT on the last lap to bring the car home in a remarkable 4th place.
“It’s such an honour and a privilege to have taken part and to have shown such a strong performance at the highest level of sim racing. It’s a testament to the countless hours we’ve put in throughout most of last year and into this year. A big thanks to Alex for believing in me, and my team, Team Flash, for allowing me to race with the Axle team. Many more races to come together!” said Aleef.
Purwien, who raced from Perth, added “To achieve this result in world’s biggest sim race is incredible. The whole team has been preparing for this race for such a long time and it is awesome to see our hard work rewarded on the world stage.”
In the GTE category, car #61 of team SEM9.Axle was in the hands of Alister Yoong and Nabil Azlan of Malaysia, Avila Bahar from Indonesia and Davide Arduini who represented Italy.
Bahar started the race well, climbing to 10th from a starting position of 15th on the grid. However, in the halfway mark at the 12th hour, the Porsche 911 was forced out of the race due to internet connection issues.
“I think we did a great job in the race. Our race pace was really good. We were matching the top 10 teams. Our car made up a lot of positions in the first few hours and that gave us a good opportunity to fight the top 10 teams. We just got unfortunate with the connection issues and game bugs that really affected our race.” said the younger Azlan brother, who drove in the GTE category.
Yoong, who is also Team Manager, said “I’m so proud of this group of drivers. When we entered the competition last year, they were quite overwhelmed by the whole experience. But we always knew they could be world class and today we showed the global motorsport community what we are capable of. Thank you to SEM9 for partnering with us. And also to Team Flash and JMX Phantom who collaborated with us and Next Level Racing who provided our rigs.”
Anton, who raced with the team for the first time in a global competition, couldn’t contain his excitement. “We were all just so excited to race with Max Verstappen. I won’t deny that I was completely star struck. We dreamed of making it to the top ten. Our team boss, Alex Yoong, believed that we could make it to the top five as long as we all worked hard for it. Then we end up being 4th in the world! Is this for real?” said the Filipino driver.
Azlan added “We’ve won races and even championships before but this is probably the sweetest moment we’ve felt as a team.”
Team SEM9 Flash Axle finished 10th overall in the LMP teams championship while team SEM9.Axle settled for 15th place in the GTE teams championship. Unofficially voted as “the most impressive” team” according to race commentators, they were the only outfits from Southeast Asia that competed in the endurance series alongside the likes of Realteam Hydrogen Redline, Red Bull Racing Esports, R8G Esports, Veloce Esports, Panis Racing and Alpine Esports.
The first four races in the Le Mans Virtual Series were held online between September and December 2021, with the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual taking place as the climax to the premier endurance esports championship which offered a prize pool of US$250,000.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual final was won by Felipe Drugovich, Oliver Rowland, Jeffrey Rietveld and Michal Smidl for Realteam Hydrogen Redline. In GTE, the BMW Team Redline entry driven by Kevin Siggy, Rudy van Buren, Lorenzo Colombo and Enzo Bonito took the laurels. Both class winners also claimed their respective overall championship victories.
50 cars took to the grid at Circuit de la Sarthe, with only 33 teams finishing the full 24 hours.
