KUALA LUMPUR: Tunku Panglima Johor Tunku Abdul Rahman Hassanal Jefri Sultan Ibrahim has his sights on qualifying for the for the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
Tunku Jefri, who races with Triple Eight Johor Motorsports Racing team (JMR), said he considers Le Mans to be the "pinnacle" of endurance racing.
JMR competed in the 2023-2024 Asia Le Mans series season and came in second place overall in the GT class, just two points adrift of the winners Pure Rxcing.
The winners in each class of the Asia Le Mans competition earns a spot in the 24 Hour of Le Mans, which is usually held in June each year.
"We just finished the Asia Le Mans series and we had a strong season," said Tunku Jefri recently.
"We kept progressing with each race and finished up in Abu Dhabi (final round) just two points away from securing a place on the grid in Le Mans.
"It was my debut season in the series and it was also the team's first season in the competition.
"To be honest, when we started, I looked at it as a development year for both I, as a driver, and the team. We tried to learn as much as we could.
"There are a lot of differences in endurance racing, from tyres to rules but most importantly, strategy and planning, which is crucial when you are racing for four, 12 or event 24 hours at a time."
"It is a challenge for us and hopefully we can continue doing well next season. The pinnacle would be to reach the 24 Hours of Le Mans."
JMR ran a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in Asia Le Mans this year, but Tunku Jefri has not ruled out stepping up to the LMP3 or LMP2 class in the future.
"So far we do not have any plans for that (LMP cars) yet," he added.
"But you never know, nothing is impossible, I hope so.
"The most important thing is that we want to reach Le Mans."
Though relatively new to endurance racing, Tunku Jefri is already an accomplished GT racer and won the GT3 Pro-Am title during the 2022 season of GT World Challenge Asia.
Tunku Jefri is currently racing in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, which is also an endurance racing series.
The second round of the series will be held at the Nurburgring circuit in Germany, from May 30 to June 2.
