SENTUL (INDONESIA): Astra Honda Racing team’s Indonesian riders, Awhin Sanjaya and Andi Farid Izdihar finished on top of the podium of the AP250 and SS600 categories in the 5th round of the Asian Road Racing Championship at the Sentul International Circuit on Sunday. In the SS600 category, Honda Racing India’s Japanese rider Taiga Hada gained another six points with a 10th place finish.
The 20-year-old Hada had qualified 9th on the grid. He is now ranked 9th out of the 31 contenders in the 600cc category. His performance on Sunday means the Indian team have a total of 72 points so far and they are now ranked 7th in the 15-team 600cc class. “Now my target is the final round in Thailand. Chang (International Circuit) with its long straight will be a tough circuit. But I want to challenge myself and I am aiming for a podium in Thailand,” Hada said.
The Indian duo of Rajiv Sethu and Anish Shetty recorded their fastest lap times and also made up for Saturday’s performance by helping their team finish 15th out of 23 in the AP 250 class. Rajiv was comfortable in the 16th position till the 8th lap of Race 2 before a technical glitch pushed him back to 21st by the end of the day.
Anish who started at 27th settled for 24th. However, he recorded a personal best lap time of 1:47:552. “Today I entered the race with a mindset to earn points. I had reached 16th spot early in lap 2 of the 12-lap race and saw possibilities of finishing 13th. But a technical issue limited my top speed due to which I was pushed back.
While a little disappointed, I am also happy that I could improve further and register my best ever lap time here. Now my focus will be on the next Thai Talent Cup race in Thailand on November 17. I plan to use this experience to perform better in the final ARRC round in Thailand in December,” Rajiv said. vimalsankar@newindianexpress.com