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2016.8.6
Team KAGAYAMA SUZUKI Asia makes steady progress on Day 1 at Sentul
The 2016 FIM Asia Road Racing Championship entered its latter half of the season with its Round 4 being held this weekend at Sentul International Circuit in Bogor, Indonesia. The team, with most of its member and #41 Noriyuki Haga came to Sentul, immediately after their race at Suzuka 8Hours.
Team KAGAYAMA SUZUKI Asia, spearheaded by Yukio Kagayama, was established in 2015 in conjunction with SUZUKI’s single platform SUZUKI ASIAN CHALLENGE on the All New Suzuki Satria F150. This year’s rider, #98 Patis Chooprathet is an alumni of the SUZUKI ASIAN CHALLENGE, who ranked 2nd in 2015. Haga takes effort to train the young Asian rider, as well as maturing the SUZUKI GSX-R600.
2 practice sessions took place on Day 1 at Sentul. Patis, who finished 2nd in Race 1 and won Race 2 last year at Sentul, showed speed from the start, make laps with the same time or sometimes better than Haga. Patis timed a 1’32.231 in FP1, finishing 12th, and was able to scarve another 0.8 seconds in session 2. Meanwhile, Haga made steady progress on the development of the GSX-R600.
Patis Chooprathet | #98
I haven’t been able to ride the GSX-R600 for the last two months, so I concentrated on training during this time. The course is very bumpy, so I concentrated how I can run faster in the final corner, and changed settings on my suspension. I was able to make a satisfactory lap, but I plan to try a couple more settings for the qualifying and Race 1.Noriyuki Haga | #41
The feeling of my GSX-R600 is not bad. I concentrated on a softer setup to tackle the bumpy surface of this track, but it did not lead to a lap time that I would be satisfied. I am going to change my setting to a hard-side tomorrow, and try to find the best setup for the race.
