It was a one-up for the Spaniard in TVS Asia One Make Championship when he seized the moment at the right time to bag a win in Race 2 at Sepang, sparking a dramatic rivalry between Malaysian, Ramdan Rosli who was expected to pocket a double win on home-soil and defending champion, Hiroki Ono of Japan who was all about calling the shots in the game. With his first victory in hand, can Luis Miguel take the winning momentum up a notch and fight home-boy at Mobility Resort Motegi in Round 3 of IDEMITSU FIM Asia Road Racing Championship?
Luis may be a debutante but he was definitely quick to learn the ropes and unexpectedly, in the midst of rivalry and chaos among the top three contenders in Round 1, he bagged his first podium in Race 1. Although he succumbed to a “DNF” in Race 2, the Spanish rider, known to quietly strike from the back, pulled himself back up and juggled his cards carefully to score fourth in Race 1 of Round 2 before pulling a stunner in Race 2 to close the deal. Consequently, he sits at the fourth spot in the overall charts, 14 points shy from penetrating the top-three goal.
But the journey to stardom is a long, windy road and with the top three contenders having experience as an added advantage on the upcoming circuit ground, it’s hard to say if Luis could match up to the rivalry. For Hiroki, it’s his playground that he is extremely well-versed with unless there is an encounter with a troubled machine. Ramdan on the other hand was not bad himself when he bagged a 3-3 last season on the circuit ground. Perhaps, a more realistic approach would be to tackle his closest opponent, Sartak who took sixth in Race 1 before going down with a “DNF” in Race 2.
Commenting on the race, Luis said, “It was nothing to do with luck for me. Throughout the race, I have been studying the riders, the moves as well as their strengths and weaknesses. They began faltering towards the last lap and that was an open goal for me. I charged ahead where I knew I had the upper-hand in terms of speed and made it. The coming round will be a new experience for me. I’ve never raced there but I kind of like how it is. I also know that the rivalry will be strong on the circuit ground and one that we all have to be careful with is Hiroki since it’s him home-ground.”
“I have trained on various machines but adapting to TVS Apache RR310 has been easy. I was able to do it pretty quickly. This also worked well with the different circuits. That’s one thing I would take credit for, in terms of adapting. But of course, the machine itself gives me a good feeling. It is a very good machine and compared to the bikes I’ve raced on previously, TVS Apache is much bigger. So, it’s a good experience for me, overall. At the moment, I am not too worried about the overall standings but my goal is to remain focused and being able to finish the race in a good position. I would like to avoid making any mistakes, preferably.”