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2015.10.4
Team KAGAYAMA SUZUKI Asia gains precious points in Race 2 at Qatar
The penultimate round of the 2015 FIM Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC) has held at Losail International Circuit, located just outside of Doha, Qatar.
The warm-up session started after the sun went down at 18:10. Team KAGAYAMA SUZUKI Asia, planned to mature the set-up during this session, but minor trouble prevented the team from doing that in this short 15-minute session.
Both riders started from the same grid position as Race 1, with #25 Rafid Topan Sucipto on the 10th grid, and #41 Noriyuki Haga on the 14th grid. They positioned themselves in the top 10 immediately after race start. Haga went up as high as 7th during the race, while Topan kept his position in the top 10. Haga kept his 7th position until the final lap, but was overtaken and finished 8th. Topan fell on the final corner of the last lap while pushing to make a pass, but managed to bring the damaged machine to finish the race in 13th.
Haga, with 16 points added, moved up to 6th in the point rankings, while Topan adding 9 points, moved himself up to 17th in the point ranking.
Rafid Topan Sucipto | #25
“I had no problems with my SUZUKI GSX-R1000, and made a good start, so I was able to make a solid race. I fell when I made a move to pass the rider in front of me on the last lap, so that was set me back a little. Next race in Thailand, would be our last race of the season, so I will aim to be on my first podium of the season there.”Noriyuki Haga | #41
“We had trouble at warm-up, so I couldn’t confirm if the drastic change in my set up would work. There were things that improved, but there were also things that worsened, but I was able to understand more by finishing both races. Next race would be the last race of the season, so I plan to give more than I can.”Yukio Kagayama | General Manager
“We couldn’t solve the chattering problem Haga had, so it must have been frustrating for him. But even in those circumstances, he finished in the top 10 in both races, and I can only thank him for that.Topan had a shifter problem during Race 2, but he managed to get points for us, despite his crash on the final lap. Next race in Thailand would be our race last this year, and I will do my best to provide the two riders with a machine that can finish in their best results of the season”
