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2015.8.31
Murase closes in to Gunawan for the title hunt
Round 4 Race 2 of the SUZUKI ASIAN CHALLENGE (SAC), SUZUKI’s rider development program for Asian riders, produced and operated by Yukio Kagayama, took place on a sunny and hot Sunday at Chang International Circuit, located in Buriram, Thailand.
SAC is a single-platform race, using the SUZUKi FU150’s (Satria in Indonesia, Belang in Malaysia, and Raider in Thailand, Vietnam, and Philippine. In order to maintain fairness, the riders get to choose their machine at the very beginning of every race week. The order of the selection is decided by the result from Race 2 of the previous round, with the rider that finished last choosing the machine first.
Race 2’s starting grid was the same as Race 1, with #99 Adhi Chandra (Indonesia) on pole, followed by #98 Patis Chooprathet (Thailand) and #43 Andreas Gunawan (Indonesia).
Race 2 became a race similar to Race 1, with most riders in the top group, changing positions and leads, from start to finish. The only difference was that a few fallers took place, including point ranking leader Gunawan, and runner-up Chooprathet.
#83 Takeru Murase (Japan) who was overtaken at the final corner of the final lap in Race 1, learned well, and held himself right behind the leader until the final corner. He took the lead there and won the race, placing him 2nd in the Championship title hunt.
#71 Kai Saito came in 2nd, making it first podium finish at SAC, while pole sitter, Chandra finished 3rd.
SUZUKI ASIAN CHALLENGE will skip Round 5 of the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship at Qatar, and will come back to Thailand again for the final round of the 2015 season.
Takeru Murase | #83
I am happy that I was able to win again. I was able to run in a good lap time from day 1, so I was able to simulate where I should position myself during the race to win it. The passing points are at the final S curve and the final corner, but I was passed at the final corner in race 1. So I made sure I can run the line I want and was able to pass Kai (Saito) to win the race. We have a 3 month interval to the final round, so I plan to prepare well, so that I can win both races at the final round.Yukio Kagayama | General Manager
In Race 2, the riders showed progress, battling fiercely but making sure they raced fairly. This proves that they have improved, and I am happy to see that. There were a couple of crashes, but this was due to the riders racing near limit, and I believe that they will learn from this.We will come back for the final round again to Thailand, and I thank the sponsors and the supporters that we are able to finish the season. I hope that all 17 riders will show us a even better race at the final round.
Hideyuki Ogata | Rider Coach
We saw a couple of crashes in Race 2, but the close battle in the top group made this race a great one. The riders who fell should analyze the reason they crashed, and not make the same mistake again. The final round will take place again here, and this is the first time this year for the riders to race on the same track. I am looking forward to see the riders take advantage of the experiece this week.
