and swept past Charles Kwan and pole-sitter Matthew Marsh at the start of the race. Despite a gearbox issue, Yoong won the race by 1.186 seconds. V8 Supercars In the middle of 2003, Yoong was signed by the SAE Racing team to enter the Bathurst 24-hour production car event. He was team-mates with Luke Searle (the son of the owner David Searle), Alan Gurr and Geoff Full in a BMW 320i. A test session at Queensland Raceway in July showed the car was competitive. The drivers qualified 14th, but problems arose. During the qualifying, the BMW's engine had been losing power along with a failure of the fuel filter and the fuel injector jets were blocked. During the race, the issues were still present until 75 minutes before the race end, but the team did complete 50 laps. For 2004, Yoong was embarking in a career in the media for ESPN Star Sports as a Formula One presenter. By May of that year, support from Malaysian company Pan Global saw him drive in the V8 endurance events at Sandown and Bathurst. For this to happen, Yoong signed with Shane Beikoff racing to compete in the final three rounds of the Konica Minolta series. Testing at Queensland Raceway gave Yoong his V8 Supercar debut in a Ford Falcon AU at Eastern Creek. After qualifying in 17th, he got into 13th at the start of the race but a collision with a fellow competitor saw Yoong drop two places. The damage caused the car to sit out for the rest of the weekend, but Yoong bounced back at Queensland Raceway to start ninth. The race was more eventful as he dropped to 25th and lapped after his car was stuck in fourth gear and an incident with Kevin Mundy on lap one meant he was unable to finish higher than 10th. The third race saw an 18th-place finish. Yoong joined WPS Racing for the endurance races. Pairing up with New Zealand rookie John McIntyre, the entry struggled to 21st place in the 2004 Betta Electrical Sandown 500 having found themselves in the muddy run-off areas on multiple occasions – a fate also suffered by the team's second Ford Falcon BA. McIntyre was moved to said other car for the Bathurst 1000, leaving Yoong to partner with Neil McFadyen. In the only start at the Mount Panorama Circuit for the pair of them,