Yuki Ito from Japan snatched a fine win in the premier SuperSports 600cc class in the fifth round of the Asia Road Racing Championship, hosted by the Madras Motor Sports Club, at the MMRT track here on Sunday.
After chasing front-runner Md. Zaqhwan Zaidi (Malaysia, Honda) winner of the first race on Saturday, for much of the 14 laps, Ito, astride a Yamaha, finally made his move in the 12th to ease into the lead and never looked back. Zaidi hung on to his second place while Japan’s Taiga Hada (Honda) finished third.
Wretched week continues
Championship leader Malaysian Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman’s wretched weekend, after his high-side crash during Friday’s practice session, continued as he ended the race in 12th place.
More significantly, he slipped to fourth in the championship while Zaidi jumped to the top spot, followed by Hada and Ito, who are tied on points.
India’s S. Sarath Kumar (Honda), despite an improved performance in terms of lap time, finished 13th.
The results (Provisional):
SuperSports 600cc: Race two (14 laps): 1. Yuki Ito (Japan, Yamaha) (23:55.967); 2. Md. Zaqhwan Zaidi (Malaysia, Honda) (23:56.832); 3. Taiga Hada (Japan, Honda) (24:04.372).
Asia Production 250cc: Race two (10 laps, wet race): 1. Galang Hendra Pratama (Indonesia, Yamaha) (19:47.359); 2. Tomoyoshi Koyama (Japan, Honda) (19:48.264); 3. Takehiro Yamamoto (Honda, Japan) (19:56.097).
Underbone 150cc: Race two (seven laps): 1. Azroy Hakeem Anuar (Malaysia, Honda) (13:29.043); 2. Md. Akid Aziz (Malaysia, Yamaha) (13:29.175); 3. Md. Haziq Md Fairues (Malaysia, Yamaha) (13:29.598).
Support Races (MMSC One-Make championship): Honda CBR 250 (Open): Race two (10 laps): 1. Amit Richard Topno (Ranchi) (20:29.001); 2. Hari Krishnan Rajagopal (Chennai) (20:29.301); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai) (20:29.327).
TVS Apache 200 (Open): Race two (10 laps): 1. S. Sivanesan (Chennai) (22:10.020); 2. Arun Muthukrishnan (Chennai) (22:10.448); 3. R.L. Yashas (Bengaluru) (22:10.455).
