• 2015.8.30 Unfortunate incidents set back Team KAGAYAMA SUZUKI Asia

  

  The FIM Asia Road Racing Championship, now in its latter half of the 2015 season, has entered the 4 round at Chang Interntional Circuit in Buriram, Thailand.

  Day 2 has become the busiest day of the race weekend for the team, with a practice session, qualifying, and a race in one day.

  Both #25 Rafid Topan Sucipto and #41 Noriyuki Haga, continued to make progress in their settings in FP3, but was unable to find the perfect setting. Nevertheless, both riders went to show their best in qualifying. Haga ran his best lap of the weekend with a 1’40.923 and qualified 12th, while Topan ran a !’41.590 to qualify 19th.

  After a brief interval, the riders were back on the track for their first race of the weekend. Haga kept his position immediately after start, and made his way up one by one. He raced his way up, in the group battling for 2nd, but was forced to fall when an another rider hit him in Lap 7. Although he was able to get back on his GSX-R600, finishing the race was all he could do. He finished 22nd. Topan tried to make a pass at the final corner in the last lap, but this move ended him by falling, taking an another rider with him.

  Race 2 of the weekend will be held tomorrow at 4pm.

  Rafid Topan Sucipto | #25
  The feeling of my SUZUKI GSX-R600 was much better at qualifying, and my lap time improved, but not as much as I expected. In the race, I delayed my braking to make a pass, but I hit an another rider. I plan to change my setting for Race 2 tomorrow, and will try my best to finish higher than today.

  Noriyuki Haga | #41
  I tried different settings during practice, but was not able to find my best. In this situation, I was still able to do my best lap at qualifying, although I would have wanted to be on a higher grid. I was racing among the “young” Asian riders right after start, and planned to make my move in the last 5 laps of the race, but unfortunately was hit from the back. I was able to restart, so I finished the race, because I wanted to check the tires. I hope that my setting I plan to change for Race 2, will make it better for me tomorrow.

  Yukio Kayagama | General Manager
  Noriyuki (Haga) once again surprised me. He ran the free practice sessions and qualifying just to find the right race set-up, and come Race 1, he was averaging faster than any of the sessions before. He was in a good position to take 4th place, but unfortunately he was taken out by the rider racing behind him.

  Topan was suffering a bit from setting up the machine, but was able to make improvement session after session. But his rivals also made improvements. He took out an another rider with him, when he crashed in the final lap, so it wasn’t a great race for him and the team.

  We will forget about today, and do the best we can for Race 2 tomorrow. I hope I can give a better machine to Topan.

  

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