FUJIWARA ON FIRE

Katsuaki Fujiwara continues to assert his dominance over the SuperSports 600cc field as the Japanese rider smashed the lap record to take a stunning pole in the PETRONAS Asia Road Racing Championship qualifying at the Sepang Circuit today.

The BEET Kawasaki Racing rider rode a faultless ride to set a new lap record of 1’05.184s around the 2.807 kilometre track, erasing the previous lap record of 1’05192s he clocked in the pre-season test last month while Musashi Boon Siew Honda Racing’s Mohd Zamri Baba and teammate Makoto Tamada locked out the front row with 1’05.326s and 1’05.385s respectively.

Fujiwara posted his flying lap on the soft tyre option provided by Dunlop while the majority of the grid ran on medium compound.

Although Zamri and Tamada were denied pole, the collective performance of the front row starters suggests Sunday’s race will be extremely closely-fought as they are only separated by a hundredth of a second.

Adding on to the intensity, the next nine riders also posted their times under the one minute five second mark with Mohd Zaqhwan Zaidi, Thailand’s Ratthapong Wilairot and Indonesia’s H.A Yudhistira rounding up the second row.

“I am very happy to clinch my fourth pole and set a new lap record at Sepang. The track conditions were good today for both front and rear tyres and it resulted in an overall good feeling,” said Fujiwara.

“Even so, I do not expect an easy race on Sunday. I think it will be a really close race with the top 12 riders separated by less than a second. Based on that, I anticipate a physically draining battle in the first 15 laps but this won’t stop me from trying to win,” added Fujiwara who last won the championship in 2011.

WILDCARD FAZLI ON POLE

Local wildcard entry, Ahmad Fazli Sham will start Sunday’s Underbone 130cc race from pole, heading the front row from Mohd Affendi Rosli and T.Pro Yuzy Honda’s Mohd Amirul Ariff Musa.

Fazli Sham outpaced Affendi by 0.011 seconds for the top spot with 1’20.971s but his PETRONAS Hong Leong Yamaha teammate was still pleased to be on the front row with 1’20.980s.

Both riders were the only ones out of 19 contending riders to post their quickest lap under one minute 21 seconds while Amirul rounded up the top three with 1’21.115s.

“I was surprised to get pole in a field full of fast riders. It did not help that I struggled a bit with the setup through the practice. Nevertheless, I am really pleased to start the race from the front,” said the 31-year old Fazli.

Speaking about his expectations for the race, “I am here as a wildcard so my objective tomorrow is to assist Yamaha secure a victory through Affendi. He has the pace and he is a full season contender so it is very important for him to pick up maximum points here. But if the road for me to win is wide open, I will not hesitate to take it,” he added.

Amirul’s teammate, Sasitharen Sukumaran, Thailand’s Vorapong Malahuan and Indonesia’s Gupita Kresna will start Sunday’s race from second row while Hokky Krisdianto, Kazuki Masaki and Taiga Hada takes off from third.

KHAIRUL CRUISES THROUGH ADC QUALIFYING

Malaysian rider Khairul Idham Pawi enjoyed an uncontested qualifying session during the first round of the 2014 Asia Dream Cup class held in conjunction with the PETRONAS FIM Asia Road Racing Championship at the Sepang Circuit from April 18 to 20, 2014.

Khairul logged 1’20.333s early in the qualifying session and spent the rest of the 40-minute session trying out new settings and testing his machine for durability. Khairul’s closest contender comes from Chinese-Taipei, Chuang An-Yu clocked 1’20.520s. Japanese rider Teppei Nagoe slipped into the last spot on the front grid when he checked in third fastest with 1’20.550s.

However, Khairul’s time is a second off the lap record recorded by Hiroki Ono in 2013, a blistering time of 1’19.288s.

“My qualifying times were not satisfactory because I was able to go faster during the second practice session. The warm-up tomorrow morning will be my last chance to get closer to the lap record before the race flags off. For now, I think my closest competitor would be Teppei Nagoe who has produced good results even though this is his first year in the Asia Dream Cup,” said Khairul.

One row down the grid, Md Harith Farhan Baharin from Malaysia will start the race from fourth on the grid, leading the second row which comprises of Indonesian rider Aditya Pangestu and Indian rider Sumit Loucs Toppo.

Syunya Mori, Andi Farid Izdihar, Reitoku Kurogi and Arunagiri Prabhu completes the top 10.