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2015.12.6
Topan finishes 13th in Race 1 at Buriram
Team KAGAYAMA SUZUKI Asia, with riders #25 Rafid Topan Sucipto and #41 Noriyuki Haga, have reached the final round of the season, at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand.
In its first season of the Asia Road Racing Championship, the team have made progress with Suzuki GSX-R1000 all season.Topan and Haga qualified 18th and 19th respectively.
Haga changed his setup on Saturday, and showed a significant improvement, by lapping his best at 1’40.010 during the warm-up session, and placed himself in 4th.
Both riders made a great start in Race 1, placing themselves in 12th and 13th in the opening lap. However, Haga crashed out in the opening lap, with the machine catching fire. Topan fought his way throughout the whole race finishing 13th.
The team will work hard throughout the night to fix the Haga machine, and will once again aim for both riders to finish in the points.
Rafid Topan Sucipto | #25
My Suzuki GSX-R worked perfectly for me, and I was able to race steadily. I didn’t qualify well, but I wasn’t able to finish both races at the last time here, so I am happy I finished in the points.Noriyuki Haga | #41
I discussed with team to learn from the wrong set-up in qualifying, and changed my setup for Race 1. I tried it during the morning warm-up, and I was able to slice 0.5 seconds from my best lap here. I was going to aim for the highest finish of the season, but unfortunately I highsided. I thought I opened the throttle too much in the beginning, but we found out that there was an oil leak. I regret that I didn’t notice the leak earlier. My team is working hard to fix the machine, so I hope I can finish Race 2 tomorrow in the best result this year.Yukio Kagayama | General Manager
Haga found a good set-up in the morning warm-up, and made a great jump up at start, but the machine trouble made him crash in Turn 5. I sincerely apologize to Haga for this. I concentrated on training Topan with his up and downs in his race laps, and a significant drop of lap time in the later stages of the race. This training showed improvement, and I am happy to see Topan with constant lap times, and lapping his best lap of the race at the end. We will try to progress his machine for tomorrow, and try to make him finish along with Haga on the podium.
