Two 35-year old veterans,
Anthony Keith West (Australia) and Decha Kraisart (Thailand) lit up the Buddh
International Circuit on Sunday October 2, 2016 with a memorable battle before
the former took the honours for a double in the SuperSport 600cc class on the
concluding day of the fifth round of the Asia
Road Racing Championship organised by the Madras Motor Sports Club.
Introduced in 1996, the FIM
Asia Road Racing Championship is the largest motorcycle racing series in Asia.
The production series features three open-make categories (SuperSports 600cc,
Asia Production 250cc and Underbone 130cc) as well as single manufacturer Asian
platform like Honda’s Asia Dream Cup.
The Asia Dream Cup which is
also a part of the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship, is an intense 6 round
motorcycle racing championship conducted by Honda aimed at developing
motorsport riders across the world. Nineteen racers from 12 countries across
Asia (Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Philippines, Sri
Lanka, Taipei, Vietnam, Singapore and India) race on specially modified CBR
250Rs in Asia’s best race tracks.
The Indian contingent of Hari
Krishnan, Rajiv Sethu and Mathana Kumar who participated in the Asia Dream Cup put
up a spirited display in front of a cheering home crowd. Hari Krishnan
Rajagopal and Mathana Kumar finished 11th and 15th in the Asia Dream Cup while
the third entrant Rajiv Sethu crashed out in the very first lap.
Meanwhile, West, in scoring
only his second win of the season, exhibited great riding skills and also
showcasing his experience of having ridden in various World Championships for
16 seasons, as he won a battle with Kraisart, the former two times champion who
matched the Aussie before wilting away in the final stages of the 16-lap race.
Both West and Kraisart, who
led briefly in the early stages before getting passed by the Aussie, were in a
class of their own while Azlan Shah Kamaruza of Malaysia, who initially ran the
front-runners close, came home in third, some six seconds adrift.
The Asia Dream Cup race
witnessed a thrilling battle with a bunch of seven riders roaring through the
last corner on the last lap before Australia’s Broc Pearson snatched a win.
Hari Krishnan, Sethu and
Mathana Kumar, starting in the third and fourth rows, got entangled in the big
midfield bunch and never quite broke free to challenge the front runners.
Sethu’s race ended when he
lost the front of his bike going into the sweeping parabola and crashed, while
Hari Krishnan and Mathana Kumar remained in 12th and 16th positions, but moved
up a spot when championship leader Hiroki Nakamura, who was running fifth,
crashed in the last lap.
Thailand’s Apiwat Wongthananon
on a Yamaha yet again dominated the Asia
Production 250cc class by notching his second consecutive win and eighth
from 10 starts to seal the championship as he took his tally to 221 points to
second-placed Takehiro Yamamoto of Japan who is on 151. With the sixth and last
round to be run later this year and a maximum of 50 points at stake,
Wongthananon enjoys an unassailable lead.
Ahmad Fazli Sham of Malaysia,
astride a Yamaha, won a tight race to complete a double in the Underbone 130cc class to come within
three points of championship leader Indonesian Wahyu Ali Trilaksana, also on a
Yamaha, who finished a close second, ahead of Md Fairues (Indonesia, Kawasaki).
Trilaksana has 113 points to
Sham’s 100 while Md Izzat Zaidi of Malaysia, having finished seventh on a
Yamaha, is third on the leaderboard with 107 points, just one ahead of
compatriot Md Amirul Arif Musa (Honda).
Ishaan Dodhiwala clinched the
title in the Volkswagen Vento Cup
despite finishing second behind Karminder Pal Singh in the concluding race of
the series while Jeet Jhabak took the crown in the Junior Division.
The results (Provisional):
Asia Road Racing Championship – SuperSport 600cc (Race-2, 16 laps): 1. Anthony Keith West
(Australia, Yamaha) (31:03.153); 2. Decha Kraisart (Thailand, Yamaha)
(31:06.352); Azlan Shah Kamaruza (Malaysia, Kawasaki) (31:10.691).
Underbone 130cc (Race-2, 7 laps): 1. Ahmad Fazli Sham (Malaysia,
Yamaha) (17:17.612); 2. Wahyu Aji Trilaksana (Indonesia, Yamaha) (17:17.733);
3. Md Haziq Md Fairues (Malaysia, Yamaha) (17:17.834).
Asia Production 250cc (Race-2, 9 laps): 1. Apiwat Wongthananon (Thailand, Yamaha)
(20:37.809); 2. Sitthisak Onchawiang (Thailand, Honda) (20:38.285); 3. Galang
Hendra Pratam (Indonesia, Yamaha) (20:38.364).
Asia Dream Cup (Race-2, 7 laps): Broc Pearson (Australia)
(17:01.625); 2. Sittipon Srimoontree (Thailand) (17:02.138); 3. Hafiz Nor Azman
(Malaysia) (17:02.540).
MMSC One Make Championship – Honda CBR 250 (Open, Race-2, 5 laps):
1. Abhishek Vasudev (12:52.326); 2. Anish D Shetty (12:52.386); 3. Mathana
Kumar (12:52.517).
TVS Apache RTR 200 (Open, Race-2, 5 laps): 1. Shyam Shankar
(13:57.809); 2. Prashanth Kumar (13:57.964); 3. Arun Muthukrishnan (13:58.001).
Suzuki Gixxer Cup (Open, Race-2, 5 laps): 1. Aaron Gunawardena (Sri
Lanka) (14:07.947); 2. Meka Vidhuraj (14:08.472); 3. Vivian Gladwin
(14:08.496).
Volkswagen Vento Cup (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. Karminder Pal Singh
(23:34.724); 2. Ishaan Dodhiwala (23:34.994); 3. Rishaad Mody (23:38.416).