2017

Round 4 of the Asia Road Racing Championship closed with a dramatic, almost surreal Supersport 600 Race 2. The race ran in two parts. In front of a packed grandstand, MUSASHI Boon Siew Honda’s Zaqwan Zaidi made up for a lackluster performance on Saturday, by getting away first and opening a gap on the rest of the field, which was led by Rama Honda’s Taiga Hada, who was hounded and then overtaken by Chalermpol Polamai, who opened up a few bike lengths on the rest of the field. Then everything changed. First the 22 year-old Malaysian crashed out of the lead at Turn 10 at the start of lap 3, then his team mate, Teppei Nagoe went down a few seconds later. With Zaqwan unable to get to safety, the red flag was shown and the riders returned to the pits. As the last bike came in a heavy rain storm started, causing a delay to the restart as tyres were changed and a wet race declared over nine laps. With the rain almost stopped, but with standing water on the track, Chalermpol took the early lead from Decha Kraisart and Ahmad Yuhistira on the Manual tech KYT Kawasaki. Decha quickly got past his Yamaha Thailand team mate, followed by Yudhistira, who pushed Decha hard for another lap. Unable to find a way past and with Decha making the wet conditions his own, a few bike lengths soon appeared between him and the Malaysian. Behind Yudhistira, a similar gap opened up to Chalermpol, and then there was another two seconds back to Yuki Ito, Dimas Ekky Pratama, Kasma Daniel Kasmayudin and Anthony West, who were fighting for fourth. Decha remained poised at the front, to cross the finish line 1.6 seconds in front of Yudhistira and Chalermpol, who was 5.7 seconds clear of the four-way battle for fourth, which was won by Dimas from Kasma, West and Ito. Ratthapong Wilairot had another good outing to finish eighth ahead of Azlan Shah and his AP Honda team mate, Tetsuya Yamaguchi.

Astra Honda’s ‘super-sub’ rider, Dimas Ekky Pratama, pulled off a thrilling victory in Race 1 of the Asia Road Racing Championship Round 4 at Sentul. When the RAMA Honda of Taiga Hada led into Turn 1 from the start it became apparent that the dominance of practice and qualifying pacesetter, Zaqwan Zaidi, would face a tough test over 16 laps. The Malaysian slotted into second place, but was quickly pushed back to third by Dimas and then into fourth Ahmad Yudhistira on the Manual Tech KYT Kawasaki. Dimas pushed his way past Hada to lead on lap 3, while Yudhistira and Decha turned up the pressure on Zaqwan for third, with Chalermpol and Ito at the rear of the pack. Ito low-sided onto the grass before rejoining the race with the hope only of rescuing a point or two.     By mid-distance Dimas was holding onto first position, though having to fight off Hada and alternately Yudhistira and Decha, with Zaqwan and Chalermpol keeping a watching brief behind. In the second group Azlan Shah, still nursing a hand injury, was battling for seventh with Anthony West on the Akeno Speed Yamaha and Ratthapong Wilairot on the AP Honda CBR 600RR.    Hada took third place back from Decha on lap 12 and looked like making it his own, as Zaqwan began threatened Decha’s fourth place and then relegated him to fifth. As they entered the last lap, Yudhistira made his move, increasing the pressure on his countryman and taking the lead decisively. For a moment it looked as though he would get clear, but Dimas pushed back through at the back of the circuit and got to the chequered flag first, 33 thousandths of a second ahead of Yudhistira with exactly the same gap to Hada in third.  Zaqwan was fourth, having got clear of Decha as the Thai rider’s tyres went off. Chalermpol crashed on the final lap, handing sixth place to West. Azlan came in seventh, scoring enough to retain his championship lead, while Ratthapong, Keminth Kubo and Sena Yamada completed the top ten.

MUSASHSI Boon Siew Honda’s Zaqwan Zaidi recorded the fastest ever time by a Supersport 600 at Sentul, going around the 3.96km circuit in 1:29.628 to take pole position for Race 1 as Round 4 of the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship opens at Sentul International Circuit. Zaqwan’s qualifying performance followed his dominance of all three free practice sessions on Friday, during which he showed the top Indonesian riders as well contenders for the 2017 championship the way around the track’s 3.96km and 11 turns.   Perhaps most revealing was Free Practice 2, in which Zaqwan completed nine laps in the 1:30s, with nobody else able to break the 1:31 barrier. By the time Qualifying got underway, several riders had got closer, most notably Rama Honda’s Taiga Hada, the Astra Honda of Dimas Ekky Pratama and Yamaha Thailand’s Chalermpol, all of whom joined Zaqwan below 1:30. Decha Kraisart was fifth fastest on 1:30.22, followed by Ahmad Yudhistira on the Manual Tech KYT Kawasaki, Yuki Ito, Ratthapong Wilairot for AP Honda, and championship leader, Azlan Shah, who is still hampered by a hand injury. These five riders were separated by just half a second. On the form so far, Zaqwan will start favourite, though he will need to see off challenges from another five or six riders if he is to bank another 25 points this afternoon.