Race 2 of the Asia Production 250cc class was a showcase performance between the two main actors of the 2016 season – incoming champion Apiwat Wongthananon and 2015 winner Takehiro Yamamoto.
The two top riders quickly established themselves as the pace setters for the 10-lap Asia Production 250cc race. The two rivals worked together effectively and pulled away from the chasing group. Behind them, Malaysian rookie Kasma Daniel Kasmayuddin, who started the race from the back of the grid due to a race-start infringement penalty, stole the limelight when he made up 26 spots within a lap to reach P3 at the end of Lap 1.
As the race progressed, the Apiwat-Yamamoto collaboration had created a 3.7s gap at the front by Lap 4. Kasma was left fighting for third position against two other Yamaha Thailand Racing riders, Anupab Sarmoon and Peerapong Loiboonpeng.
The jousting sticks came out for real at the final lap. Apiwat burst out of Yamamoto’s slipstream and dug deep for an extra burst of speed to the finish line. The Thai rider came near to scoring a perfect season as he took his ninth victory of 2016 with a time of 19’25.546s. Takehiro Yamamoto confirmed his position in second overall when he took second place with 19’26.248s.
Behind the leading duo, Indonesian rider Imanuel Putra Pratna had a surprise in store when he out-sprinted Anupab and Kasma to finish third with a time of 19’26.062s.
The outcome from the final race of the season saw Apiwat toting up 246 points this season. Yamamoto notched up 171 points while Anupab Sarmoon finished third overall with 166 points.
Similarly, team Yamaha Thailand Racing took home the team award trophy with 279 points. Trickstar Racing was second overall with 177 points and AP Honda Thailand ended the season in third overall with 137 points.