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2016.4.3
Two winners to open the 2016 SUZUKI ASIAN CHALLENGE Season
The second season of the SUZUKI ASIAN CHALLENGE (SAC) was held at Johor Circuit in Malaysia, March 31-April 2, as part of the 2016 FIM Asia Road Racing Championship. SAC is SUZUKI’s rider development program for Asian riders with goal of training them to become a competitive rider in the world, and possibly to move up to MotoGP™. It is produced and directed by former MotoGP™ and World Superbike rider, Yukio Kagayama.
The double-header race day was held on Saturday, April 2. #20 Jefri Tosema (Indonesia), who was always in the top group most of the sessions, won Race 1. Although he gave the whole shot to #43 April King Mascardo (Philippines), it did not take time for Tosema to take back the lead, and took control of the race until the chequered flag. Malaysian-local #12 Rozaliman Zakaria finished 2nd, while Tosema’s Indonesian teammate, Rizal Feriyadi finished 3rd.
Race 2 started at 12:50 p.m. Pole sitter, Tosema took the lead for the first half of the race, but his rivals would not let him dominate, with Rozalima, Feriyadi, Mascardo and 14 year old #22 Eane Jaye Solacito Sobretodo (Philippines) in the picture. The battle continued until the last lap, with several lead changes along the way. Tosema took the lead again on the last lap, but made a sudden pitstop, later to be found that it was due to miscommunication with his mechanic.
Rozaliman finished the race on top, followed by Mascardo, and Feriyadi finishing is back-to-back 3rd place.
Round 2 of SAC/ARRC is scheduled to take place May 6-8 at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand.
#20 Jefri Tosema, Indonesia | Race 1 Winner
There are many fast riders in SAC, and the course is not an easy one, so I feel fantastic to have won the race! I lacked some power, so I allowed my rivals to overtake me at Turn 1, but I am going to try to have a perfect weekend at Thai!#12 Rozaliman Zakaria, Malaysia | Race 2 Winner
After Race 1, I changed my setting to have better acceleration than top speed. I concentrated on winning the race, so I am very happy that I did. I am now leading the championship points, so I hope to continue being on the podium and keep that spot for myself.Yukio Kagayama | SAC General Manager
We have a very high level of riders this year, and they showed us an exciting race from the first race of the year. Watching them from the track-side, I still see some of the riding roughly, and there was also a mechanic error in Race 2, that changed the results. I plan not only to coach the riders, but to coach the mechanics as well. Thank you Suzuki and Dunlop, our sponsors, and especially the fans!
