PETRONAS Asia Road Racing Championship Round 4 – Kawasaki’s Fujiwara Has a Perfect Race Weekend
Manual Tech BEET Kawasaki Racing’s Katsuaki Fujiwara capped off what he described as a perfect weekend in Round 4 of the 2012 PETRONAS Asia Road Racing Championship with a stunning double win at Kawasaki’s home track, the Autopolis International Race Course. The rider on bike number 37 assumed control of the competition right from the very start of the weekend when he clocked in with a new fastest lap record of 1:54.933s, erasing his own 2011 record of 1:56.206s by more than a second. Much of the improvement in laptimes could be attributed to the new Dunlop Unbeaten-02N tyres that were introduced for the first time in Japan (the PETRONAS Asia Road Racing Championship runs on monotype Dunlop tyres).
In Race 1, Fujiwara put on an impressive pace to pull away early from the pack and dominated the 10-lap race with a total race time of 19’15.828s, a full 3.660 seconds ahead of the rest of the grid. Behind Fujiwara, Malaysian rider Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman carried the battle to two Japanese hotshots including his own team mate Ryuichi Kiyonari and Yuki Ito. The trio stormed through the Autopolis circuit trying to gain the edge over each other but in the end, it was Azlan who out-sprinted the other two to the finish line with a total time of 19:19.488s. Yuki Ito pulled off an unexpected result when he gained a position over the Kiyonari and finished third with 19:19.815s.
In Race 2, Fujiwara got off to a bad start from pole position, allowing Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman of team Musashi Boon Siew Honda the chance to steal the hole shot. Azlan could only maintain his position for a lap. Under pressure from the rapidly gaining Fujiwara and Yuki Ito who is making a guest appearance for team PETRONAS Syntium Moto Yamaha, Azlan dropped back to third place.
Up in front, Yuki Ito was undeterred by Fujiwara’s towering reputation and engaged the senior rider in an intense 10-lap battle for the lead. It was not until the final lap that Fujiwara was able to pull away and put an end to Ito’s hopes of pulling off the near-impossible. Fujiwara raced to his second victory of the weekend with a total time of 21:09.583s, 1.403 seconds ahead of Itoh who timed 21:10.986s in second place.
Behind them, the competition was no less intense with Malaysian riders Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman and Md Zamri Baba fighting for third position with wildcard rider Ryuta Kobayashi. Laps 9 and 10 were the highlight of this particular battle with Azlan and Zamri swapping positions at every alternate corner. Azlan prevailed, crossing the finish line in third place with 21:17.405s followed by Zamri in fourth place and Kobayashi in fifth.
Uncharacteristically, the presence of Ryuichi Kiyonari was hardly felt at Autopolis. It was not surprising to see the BSB legend clocking sixth and fifth fastest in the first and second free practice as Kiyonari had established a pattern of taking it easy during the free practice sessions. As expected, Kiyo improved on his laptimes to qualify for second on the grid. But during the races, Kiyonari was neither in the first nor second group, finishing fourth in Race 1 and a distant sixth in Race 2.
One rider’s problem is another rider’s windfall. With a double win in Autopoilis, Fujiwara has strengthened his lead in the SuperSports 600cc standings with a whopping 162 points while Ryuichi Kiyonari who finished fourth in Race 1 and sixth in Race 2 dropped to second with 136 points followed by PETRONAS Hong Leong Yamaha rider, Mohd Zamri Baba third, 124 points.
In the Underbone 115cc class, Indonesian rider Hadi Wijaya was the dominating force of the weekend. Hadi was constantly among the top five during the free practice sessions and unleashed the full power of his bike to earn pole position with a time of 1:30.436s. In both Race 1 and Race 2, Hadi employed similar tactic of waiting until the final lap before pushing his way into the front of the pack.
Hadi won Race 1 with a time of 15:27.946s and Race 2 with 15:30.486s. This double win puts Hadi that much closer to becoming the first rider in the history of the Asia Road Racing Championship to win his second Underbone 115cc title. The Indonesian topgun is now leading the title hunt with a 70-point margin after accumulating a total of 172 points after four rounds of competition. Second overall is Rey Ratukore with 102 points and Norizman Ismail is third overall with 95 points. Under these circumstances, Hadi needs only one more victory to seal the deal.
In other developments, the Autopolis International Race Course has turned out to be a stage of surprises in the Asia Dream Cup category, with both races yielding up different winners. After Denny Triyugo defeated Japanese hotshots Hiroki Ono and Hikari Okubo in Race 1 on Saturday, in Race 2, Australian rider Joshua Hook served up an inch-perfect race to gain his first taste of victory in the Asia Dream Cup class. However, nothing has changed on the leader board. As the only rider this weekend to score double podium, Okubo secured his position at the top of the rankings with 140 points. Ono is currently ranked second overall with 125 points, trailing Okubo by 15 points. Indonesian rider Denny Triyugo is third overall with 103 points.
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