12-hour endurance race in Malaysia this week
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29/05/2026Great speed in the Malaysian 12-H, but the driveshaft disappoints
11 December 2025
Last weekend, the legendary Sepang F1 track hosted the Malaysian 12-hour endurance race, in which Valters Zviedris also competed as part of the “Mühlner Motorsport” team. The Latvian driver showed an excellent performance, however, the second driveshaft defect this season prevented Valters and his teammates from fighting for victory, finishing 4th in class.
Valters Zviedris spent a full season in the “24H Series” endurance race series this year, winning class victories in both the Paul Ricard 12-Hours and the Barcelona 24-Hours races. After the successful final race of the European season, the decision was made to also go to the first round of the “24H Series Middle East”, which took place last weekend near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
A total of 17 teams took part in the “12H Malaysia” race, including six from the “992” class represented by Valters, in which teams are participating with Porsche 911 GT3 CUP racing cars. The “Mühlner Motorsport” team this time, in addition to the Latvian driver, also included the Dutchman Paul Meijer, the Australian Bailey Hall and the Chinese Liatong Jiang. Although the number of participants was smaller than in the European rounds, the level of competition was still high, as the Valters team’s biggest competitors this season, “Red Camel-Jordans.nl”, also took part in the race in Malaysia.
“I immediately realized in the first laps that the track was my style, with fast turns, many places where you have to jump over the kerbs. But the track was very unique as the tires wore out very quickly and consequently there was a lot of sliding. And as I mentioned before the race, it was very hot in the car and it was not easy to physically endure the long journeys behind the wheel. This time we had a car with air conditioning, which helped at first, but as soon as the car warmed up, it stopped working. But since I had prepared for it, it was much easier than in the previous heat in France,” says Valters Zviedris about his first impressions of Malaysia.
The Latvian athlete continues, saying that “the training day went well, we found common ground between the pilots quite quickly, we were also on the same wavelength and had similar thoughts in terms of car settings. We did have a bit of a discussion, because there were two pilots who wanted to drive with a softer suspension setting to keep the tires alive longer, but the other two wanted slightly more aggressive settings. In the end, we found a compromise that we could all be satisfied with, and these settings were definitely quite fast”. This was also proven by the qualifying runs, in which the Valter’s team showed the second fastest result in the class.
“Paul started as the first at the wheel and already on the first lap there was a fight for first place, after a few turns we managed to take the lead, however after a short moment we ended up in second place again. After this initial fight the tire saving started in order to be able to drive the first “stint” with fast and constant lap times. After the first hour “Code 60” appeared on the track, we also used it to change and I sat behind the wheel. I will be honest, this was one of my strongest drives at the wheel this season, very convincing and good speed, I also managed to save the tires well. There was also a very exciting fight for first place and a beautiful overtaking manoeuvre, which I am happy about, driving is immediately more interesting and time passes faster if you are fighting for position with a direct competitor,” said Valters about the start of the race.
“Then we had another good change and Bailey got behind the wheel, who was also very fast. He is a really good driver, because he was the Porsche Junior Shootout, in which I participated two years ago. It was a successful “stint”, however, during the next change in the pits we saw an oil leak from the driveshaft. Fortunately, we were able to change it immediately, rather than potentially staying on the side of the track and losing a lot more time. Unfortunately, it took 40 minutes, which meant losing 20 laps to the competitors. That is a lot and, of course, it was difficult and basically impossible to recover it under normal conditions,” the Latvian pilot explains the unfortunate driveshaft defect.
“We continued to fight, demonstrated great speed on the track, showing that without this driveshaft defect we would have fought steadily for victory. We even managed to get close to third place with two laps to go, but the remaining time was not enough and unfortunately this time we did not manage to get on the podium. In any case, it was a great experience on a new track, where we managed to show a great speed both personally and as a team,” positively says Valters Zviedris.
At the moment, it is not yet clear about the next races in which the Latvian pilot could compete: “The next major possible endurance races are the “6H Abu Dhabi” and “24H Dubai” in January. Unfortunately, we do not have the budget for this at the moment, but we will try and actively look for opportunities, because competing in the Dubai 24-hour race has been a dream of mine for several years. The competition there is huge, many “Porsche Supercup” drivers are competing, I would like to compare myself with them and show what I am capable of in such a strong competition.”
Latvian driver would also like to thank all the supporters who support the world of motorsport: “Thank you to everyone who helps us strive for new successes and bring the name of Latvia to the world – “Baltijas Sporta Auto – Porsche Latvija”, “Optibet Latvija”, “iPS Media”, “Industry Service Partner”, the city of Jūrmala, “Blue Shock Race”, “Joker klubs”, “Energolukss”, “I-Con” and SIA “Dārta”. Also, a big thank you to the “Mühlner Motorsport” team for this 2025 season. Although the technical sport let us down again this time, we still fought to the end!”
You can follow Valters Zviedris’ racing progress on his social media profiles on Facebook and Instagram.
Photos by: Mühlner Motorsport
Information prepared by: Arturs Virbulis
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In Latvian –
https://sportacentrs.com/motoru_sports/11122025-zviedrim_ar_komandu_lielisks_atrums_malai
