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PETALING JAYA: Motorsports veteran Rizal Ashram Ramli will pilot Team Lamborghini Kuala Lumpur JH Italia race-car which will be taking part in the one-make-race series the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia later this month.
The Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Championship will for the first time run in Malaysia as part of the Asian tour.
To be held at the Sepang circuit on May 26-27, this is the first leg for the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia race. Before this, the race had been confined to Europe where it had chalked up three successful seasons since 2009.
Rizal has had over 20 years of experience in motorsports and has won numerous titles in both local and overseas races.
The race car is a lightweight version of the Gallardo LP560-4, boasting a power output of 560hp from a V10 engine.
Lamborghini produces the car for the races and individual teams are only allowed to change the suspension settings such as the stiffness or camber.
The 2012 season will see teams from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and mainland China pit their skills against each other.
Subsequent races will be held in Fuji, Ordos (Inner Mongolia), Zhuhai, Penbay (Taiwan) and Shanghai for the grand finale in November.
Malaysian Lamborghini dealer JH Italia Sdn Bhd said it has spent RM1.2mil to prepare the car for the races.
Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports Datuk Razali Ibrahim, who unveiled the team today, said the ministry encouraged the participation of Malaysian teams in motorsports and is constantly working towards developing a healthy motorsports community in Malaysia.
"The culture for motorsports is still relatively new and needs to be refined and grown further. After all, it is a culture of discipline, hard work, teamwork and focus and these are values which we should inculcate."
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| Rizal with the Super Trofeo he will be racing in. |
He also said the Government had set aside RM2.3mil (S$935,620) this year to fund grassroots motorsports, up from RM893,000 last year.
Lamborghini Kuala Lumpur chairman Isham Ariff said it was "very excited to be associated with the 'fastest one-make series in the world'".
The Asia racing series is open to drivers who will compete in two separate 50 minutes races at each stop, following 35 minutes long qualifying races determining the drivers' starting positions in the rolling start.
Each team can comprise up to two drivers, who will have more than extreme-speed on their agenda, as a compulsory change of driver from minute 20 to minute 30 into the race will require carefully thought-out strategies for teams of mixed experience to secure victory.
 
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