The Sepang 1000km is an annual race for touring cars, normally lasting somewhere between eight and nine hours. It evolved from the Merdeka Millennium Endurance race, held at the same circuit, which included both saloons and sportscars and ran over twelve hours. It was originally run to celebrate the festival of Merdeka (Malaysian independence day).
Cars are limited to 1900cc and are mostly models from Asian manufacturers, including Malaysia’s own Proton.
Women have started every single edition of the race. For several seasons, the Red Bull Rookies team fielded an all-female crew. The 1000km’s first female winner was Faye Kusairi in 2016, driving a Proton as part of a four-person team.
All known women entrants are listed below, although there may be others I have not identified due to language barriers. In the case of a mixed team, the woman’s name always comes first and male drivers’ names are in italics.
2009
Leona Chin/Puteri Ayu Jasmin/Diana Chin/Nur Hayati Omar (Honda DC2) - 21st
Carmen Lim/Akina Teo/Amir - (Proton Satria) - DNF
2010
Philippa Yoong/Hiroko Nakamura/Frank Yee (Proton Satria Neo) - 15th
Puteri Ayu Jasmin/Noradzlianayati Abdul Radzak/Carmen Lim/Melline Jaini (Honda DC2) - 28th
2011
Puteri Ayu Jasmin/Emmiline Ang/Fauziah Haziz (Honda DC2) - 15th
Hiroko Nakamura/Eric Yeo/Melvin Choo (Proton Satria) - DNF
Amirah Mokhtar/Siti Shahkirah Shaharul/Mark Darwin (Proton Satria) - DNF
2012
Melissa Huang/Siti Zirwatul (Proton Satria) - 13th
2013
Siti Shahkirah Shaharul/Siti Zirwatul Irdah (Proton Satria Neo) - 11th
2014
Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/KJ Yee/YC Foo - (Proton Satria Neo) 9th
Siti Shahkirah Shaharul/Illy Aquila/Geraldine Read (Proton Satria Neo) - 12th
2015
Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/YC Foo/KJ Yee/Nasharuddin (Suzuki Swift) - 8th
Geraldine Read/Wong Yat Fan (Suzuki Swift) - DNF
2016
Faye Kusairi/Kefili Othman/Djan Ley/Zizan Razak (Proton Suprima S) - winners
2017
Leona Chin/Kenneth Shak/Woo Siew Chong/Chong Yee Hing (Suzuki Swift) - 9th
Rina Ito/Tomokazu Sato/Ken Foo Kwok Hsing (Toyota Vios) - 16th
2018
Leona Chin/Dato Nasri Said/Kefili Othman/Alifa Hamdan (Toyota Vios) - 7th
Joan Lee/Steven Wan/Goh Eng Peng (Toyota Vios) - 18th
Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/Shasha Shafie/Boey Chai (Suzuki Swift) - 31st
2019
Leona Chin/Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/Faye Kusairi (Proton Saga) - 6th
Angeline Lee/Siti Shahkirah Shaharul (Toyota Vios) - 28th
2020
No race held
(Image copyright Proton)