Strong-performing Thai riders crashes out while Japanese dominate once again in Round 2 of the Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup in the Sentul International Circuit, Indonesia.
Despite his best efforts, pole-sitter Nakarin Atiratphuvapat suffered a major blow with his strong campaign in the second round of the Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup (Shell Cup) in Sentul, Indonesia. The Thai national put up a valiant fight against the more experienced Japanense riders in the top 10 before crashing out on lap 14 of the 16-lap race, taking out his fellow compatriot and only girl on the grid, Muklada Sarapuech, at Sentul’s turn 10.
Taking the top three spots were the Japanese trio of Kaito Toba in first, Ryo Mizuno in second, whilst Qatar race winner Yuta Date claims the final podium spot. In the process, Date has also collected 16 points from today’s podium finish, extending his lead in the standings further with 41 points in total. Toba on the other hand not only celebrates his maiden series win, but also a big comeback after his DNF in Qatar. Second place winner Mizuno also celebrates his first podium finish in the Shell Cup campaign.
Post-race, Toba shared: “After Nakarin pulled away from us, I decided to stop the battling the rest of the field coming out of turn 1 and proceeded to chase Nakarin down.” Mizuno also added, “It was not so tough of a race for me because after Nakarin started pulling away, and seeing Kaito’s ahead, I also decided to follow in Kaito’s path at getting out of battling the other riders and chase after Nakairn.”
Date on the other hand was feeling both relieved and disappointed. While the podium finish was great, Date added “This time, I couldn’t keep my times consistently so I lost out a lot during the race. I want to do better when we go for the next round in China.”
Date, Toba, and Mizuno have now shifted their focus towards a series of upcoming domestic Japanense races in the weekends prior to the Shell Cup’s next round in Zhuhai, China.
The two Indonesian riders also performed well on their home ground with Wilman Hammar finishing in a highly respectable 5th place whilst Andi Izdihar finished 10th.
With two of the scheduled six races completed, Shell Advance global brand manager Kar-Tai Koh expressed his delight with the Shell Cup’s progress so far. He went on by saying, “Of course, the Japanese riders are very strong but the Thais have proven to be strong contenders as well. I also think that the Malaysian riders are getting there and if you look at the results, the Malaysians are improving.” He further added, “At every race, we aim to make all the riders stronger as one of the main missions of the Shell Cup is to provide a platform to turn potential into performance.”
The upcoming round in Zhuhai, China will also be held as an independent event just as how the recently concluded round in Indonesia was held. Plans are in the pipeline to promote the series even further in China involving the series’ Chinese rider Yuanhang Chen. “We have several media engagement plans with Yuanhang to spread the awareness of the Shell Cup in his home nation to encourage more young talents there to come forward and grasp the opportunity the Shell Cup can offer them.”
2014 Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup Rd.2 Sentul Circuit, Indonesia by Thoriq Azmi
2014 Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup Rd.2 Sentul Circuit, Indonesia by M.Talamonti
