Viper Niza Racing Charges To Joint Championship Lead After Hard-Fought 4th At 12 Hours of Spa
Malaysia’s Viper Niza Racing Team surged into a joint lead in the Michelin 24H European Series GT3-AM championship standings following a gritty fourth-place finish in the GT3-AM Class and 7th overall in Round 2 at the historic Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.
Despite falling just short of a podium, the team’s relentless charge from 15th on the overall grid has earned them 56 championship points, tying them at the summit of the GT3-AM table alongside Hofor Racing and HAAS RT. The result also places Viper Niza Racing tied for fifth in the overall GT3 Class standings, a mere 10 points off the series leader.
Piloting the Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, the driver trio of Team Principal Douglas Khoo, Dominic Ang, and Aaron Lim faced a stacked 40-car grid in a demanding split-format endurance race. The event was divided into two stints: a five-and-a-half-hour opening race on Saturday, followed by an overnight parc ferme hold and a six-and-a-half-hour finale on Sunday.
Starting ninth in the GT3-AM class, Ang immediately set an aggressive pace, carving through traffic to sit fifth in class by the end of the first hour. The crew maintained clean, consistent runs to close Race 1 in eighth overall and fourth in class. Race 2 saw the team push even harder, briefly climbing to sixth overall by the seventh hour before ultimately settling into seventh overall and fourth in class, completing 239 laps around the iconic 7.004km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
The team’s raw pace was undeniable, posting a fastest lap of 2:17.985. They finished just two laps shy of the GT3-AM podium, which was claimed by HAAS RT’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II. Notably, Viper Niza emerged as the third-highest-placed Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO among the overall top 10 finishers, holding their own in a field heavily dominated by McLaren, Audi, and Porsche machinery.
“A third successive podium finish eluded us, but Spa Francorchamps continues to be a circuit that we are very fond of and strong at,” said Khoo, who also serves as the team’s lead driver. “We had a clean run and our pit stops were good. We just got a little unlucky with the last Code 60 (safety car condition), which allowed HAAS RT to take advantage and refuel. Considering the very high level of competition this year, we are happy to go away with fourth place in class and valuable championship points added to our European campaign in the Michelin 24H Series. With three more rounds in the championship, every point matters.”
The result further cements Viper Niza Racing’s strong Spa pedigree. The team secured second in the GT3-AM class here last year and famously claimed overall victory in the PRO/AM class at the inaugural TCR SPA500 in 2019.
Backed by key industry partners including Motul, IWC (Official Watch Brand), Momentum Autoparts, and SPARCO Italy, the Malaysian squad will now regroup and fine-tune their Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO for the next three rounds of the Michelin 24H Series. With the championship finely balanced and the team demonstrating consistent race pace, Viper Niza Racing has firmly announced itself as a serious title contender on the European endurance stage.
