Peerapong Boonlert put the disappointment of having his unbroken run of wins interrupted in race one by Soichiro Minamimoto with a convincing performance in a wet race at Suzuka. The contest was shortened to five laps after a long delay while race control waited for a severe weather system to pass.
Peerapong led from the re-start, chased by Kasma Daniel Kasmayudin, Minamimoto, Yuto Sano and Kyusuke Okuda. Kasma lost touch with the leader on lap two as Minamimoto and Okuda disputed second place. That allowed Peerapong to extend his lead, but Okuda managed to get away from Minamimoto and the leader’s advantage quickly disappeared as the Kawasaki closed on the Supersport championship leader.
Peerapong and Okuda, lapping two seconds quicker than the rest of the field engaged in a nail-biting fight for the front, which the Thai refused to relinquish, crossing the line one tenth ahead of the wildcard and five seconds clear of Minamimoto, who sealed his second podium finish of the weekend.
Kasma held on to take fourth in front of Andi Farid Izdihar, Yuto Sano, Passawit Thitivararak, Katsuto Sano, Kota Arakawa and Helmi Azman, who finished tenth.
Peerapong’s points tally now stands at 191, 93 points clear of second placed Kasma, who is 15 points ahead of Andi Farid.