Announcement : MSF 2021 Update

 

The year 2020 was one of previously unknown hardships and ordeals due to the COVID-19 pandemic, felt not just in Malaysia but around the globe. It was a year that Malaysia Speed Festival (MSF) confronted the challenges head-on, a year of changes and adaptation, but with creative innovation we were able to stimulate expansion and spur consolidation.

 

Unfortunately, the much-awaited brand new MSF Touge Hillclimb event series was unable to get off the ground: initially due to local council permit issues for Round 1 at Janda Baik, and when COVID-19 hit, there was a long wait-and-see period for which we were unable to mobilise.

 

MSF SuperBikes, which was entering its third successful year and saw Ducati Owners Club Malaysia (DOCM) taking a slot with a full quota of Ducati owner-racers, was left stuck at the start line grid with the “1-minute to go” board showing.

 

However…

 

We managed to keep the racing fever burning when everyone was stuck at home during the darkest of times of the Movement Control Order with our new e-racing series MSF CyberTurismo – it ran across 8 months, 82 episodes, over 240 virtual race starts on Gran Turismo Sport and aired on Astro Arena HD; in the process making new friends in the online racing arena, and enveloping this alternate segment into the fun, fever, and family of what is ‘The MSF Way’.

 

We cooperated and successfully fired up the nation’s interest in National-level saloon car racing when MSF partnered with Sepang Circuit’s (SIC) own Malaysia Championship Series (MCS) event, and packing up a weekend which has historically been the biggest motorsports weekend in the Malaysian annual motorsports calendar – over 337,000 online broadcast views in total, and over 50,000 viewers on the Merdeka Race highlights programs aired on Astro Arena the following week.

 

The outcome of the Merdeka Race tie-up has had repercussions which will greatly affect the future of National saloon car motor racing, as it has opened the doors to cooperation amongst MSF and SIC to collaborate and combine, aligning for a long-term goal of creating a structured Driver Development ladder for the growth of the national saloon car motorsports industry.

 

2021 will be a year of change, adaptation, and expansion. Our flagship MSF Racing will evolve into 2-day weekend events, and we will be working closely with SIC and combining with MCS to create bigger, more exciting, and more engaging National-level motor racing festivals: each race weekend will feature a different race format creating a different challenge each round, the Merdeka Race will grow into a big carnival, and the Sepang 1000km weekend will be linked to become the season-ending climax Finale event for the year.

 

MSF SuperTurismo will be cohesively restructured with MCS to bring more value and establish the national saloon car racing driver development structure. It will be the same but enhanced for all: Street categories will remain as they are the link to the street-level racing teams; the Ultimate categories will amalgamate with the MCS categories, which as a whole will evolve and link with regulations of similar and relevant racing series around the region; and Ultimate Open will always be the ultimate tuner-level race featuring the most monstrous of tuned and modified race cars in the country.

 

MSF SuperBikes will feature during the Merdeka Race and Finale, and as usual we’re looking forward to these 2-wheel racers going elbow-to-elbow with scores to settle as they get back to the circuit after not being able to battle in 2020. MSF hopes that DOCM will continue to have faith in our activities, and we’re looking forward to these powerful, exclusive red beauties fire it up and fight it out to be the MSF DesmoCup Champion.

 

The new X Street Mania featuring MSF SuperMoto and Drifting, as well as MSF Touge will run in 2021. These are eagerly awaited series which will expand the MSF fever and fun to new geographical locations and venues around the country. MSF will be brought closer to the fans, will venture to venues north, south, and east of the country, and will hit the twisty winding roads of the best Malaysian hills. This is the extreme side of motorsports, and are looking forward to get these events up and roaring.

 

Lastly, it is about adapting. The ‘New Normal’ means that people will be less mobile and travel less – MSF is looking to bring the festival to their homes with Live broadcasting of all events on social media, with events highlights programs on Astro Arena HD. MSF will be geographically diversifying to reach a greater audience around Malaysia with X Street Mania and MSF Touge, another means with which we are adapting, expanding, and building MSF into a renown motorsports festival series.

 

Planning for 2021 has been difficult given the circumstances but MSF is looking forward to a better second half of the year and expecting that motorsports should be able to get going from late Q2 onwards. We have a full calendar of dates planned, but with the recent rise in daily infection rates and MCO 2.0, we are now looking to commence competition racing activities after Hari Raya Puasa.

 

Accompanying this announcement, we have included an overview document to share MSF’s direction for the year, and planned 2021 calendar as of now. We are counting down the days to when we’ll be revving it up and going wheel-to-wheel again. Stay safe everyone.

 

 

ADIAN YEIN

Principal

Malaysia Speed Festival

Matrix Motorsports Promotion Sdn Bhd