Kuala lumpur: On paper, Malaysia has one of Southeast Asia's most advanced motorsport facilities. In practice, industry players say the ecosystem beneath it remains fragile, constrained by limited access, rising costs, and a shortage of structured pathways between amateur participation and professional racing. According to BERNAMA News Agency, at the heart of the debate is track time. Former Formula One driver Alex Yoong said Malaysia's four-wheel motorsport ecosystem cannot grow meaningfully without more regular and predictable access to circuits, arguing that frequency, rather than infrastructure alone, determines whether talent, teams, and supporting businesses can take root. 'For local motorsport, we get about two days a month at Sepang. That is not enough to build teams, drivers, mechanics or a business,' he told Bernama. While acknowledging Sepang International Circuit's (SIC) commercial pressures, Yoong said usage intensity matters more than facility quality. 'I got zero complaints about the infrastr ucture, but you cannot grow an industry on two days a month. Ideally, it needs to be five or six days,' he added. Professional race driver Tengku Djan Ley Tengku Mahaleel echoed these concerns, pointing to a structural bottleneck created by Malaysia's reliance on a single main circuit for four-wheel motorsport. Both Yoong and Tengku Djan stressed that while track-day participation has increased, the middle layer of the ecosystem remains underdeveloped. This is the stage where drivers transition into structured competition, teams stabilize operations, and costs begin to normalize. Track days, they said, have thrived as a recreational activity, but progression beyond that level remains uneven. Former SIC chief executive officer Datuk Razlan Razali said this imbalance has existed for years and was already evident before the COVID-19 pandemic. 'Local teams usually cannot afford to rent the track on their own. They depend on track-day organizers. That has always been the reality,' he said. Current SIC chief exe cutive officer Azhan Shafriman Hanif said track utilization has risen sharply since the pandemic, with demand pushing usage levels above 80 percent in 2025. While higher utilization reflects strong interest, industry players said it has also intensified competition for limited calendar space, further constraining access for development-focused activity. Tan Sri Mokhzani Mahathir, president of the Motorsports Association of Malaysia (MAM), said Malaysia has yet to establish a consistent pathway that allows talent to progress from grassroots participation to international competition. 'It's how you develop the ladder from the beginning, from grassroots all the way to world championship. Australia and Japan have systems that work. We have not found that yet,' he said. Yoong cautioned against equating strong track-day demand with a healthy motorsport industry, noting that four-wheel racing in Malaysia remains heavily dependent on SIC. 'The two-wheel scene survived because it does not rely on one venue. For four wheels, everything funnels back to Sepang,' he said. Douglas Khoo, founder and team owner of endurance racing outfit Viper Niza Racing, said regular access to track days is critical for preparation and competitiveness. 'Very critical. Whenever there's a track day, and it does not clash with my schedule, we will definitely take the car out for testing,' he said. While acknowledging SIC's commercial constraints, Khoo said recent reductions in session length have affected value for teams. 'Previously, the time allocation was 55 minutes per category. Now it's gone down to 45 minutes for the same amount of money. Ten minutes is a lot. You can do four or five more laps,' he said. Yoong warned that limited access and rising costs risk pushing teams and drivers to train overseas, weakening domestic value creation. 'When track time is limited, teams are forced to train overseas. That means workshops here lose business, mechanics lose jobs, and the ecosystem weakens,' he said. Tengku Djan described motorsport not m erely as a sport, but as a commercial ecosystem involving engineering, logistics, finance, and management. 'If you do not create platforms locally, you do not get longevity,' he said. Razlan said while motorsport is inherently expensive, cost alone is not the core issue. 'What matters is structure,' he said, adding that responsibility for mapping and coordinating the ecosystem now sits with MAM. According to Razlan, a national motorsport blueprint currently being finalized is expected to quantify the value chain, identify gaps, and provide a clearer basis for policy decisions. With track-day demand rising, access increasingly constrained, and development pathways still fragmented, Malaysia's four-wheel motorsport ecosystem faces a critical test of whether frequency, structure, and coordination can keep pace with interest.