TAMADA DOMINATES FIERY CHENNAI, AZLAN EXTENDS CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD Musashi Boon Siew Honda Racing achieved a perfect weekend in India as riders, Makoto Tamada recorded a double victory with teammate, Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman in tow in the action-packed SuperSports 600cc races in the third round of the 2013 PETRONAS Asia Road Racing Championship today. Tamada earned his maiden victory for the season in Race 1. Despite making a slight mistake at the start of the 16-lap race, the former MotoGP rider caught up with Azlan who was tussling for P1 with PETRONAS Hong Leong Yamaha rival, Mohd Zamri Baba. Azlan and Zamri’s aggression caused them lost pace after coming into contact in lap-9 and Tamada capitalized on the opportunity to steal lead and claim his first win with 15’36.927s. Azlan settled for second and Zamri third, 15’37.218s and 15’38.166s respectively. Race 2 saw a lot less overtaking but the race ended abruptly when race leader Tamada high-sided on Lap 10 and bringing out the red flag. The race was ultimately called off but despite the drama, Tamada was still crowned champion as results were taken based on riders’ position in lap 9. However only half points were awarded for Race 2. Tamada came in first with 15’36.927s followed by Azlan with 15’37.218s and Zamri third, 15’38.166s. “Race 2 felt a bit off, from the start I felt the grip was not strong enough. Nevertheless, I could still ride comfortably. But somehow, I lost control of the bike and crashed coming out of a turn. My back and leg still hurts from the impact but I consider myself lucky to escape without any major injuries,” he said. Tamada went on to talk about his first outing at the Madras Motor Race Track and commented, “Overall, it was a good weekend. Although it ended on the wrong note, I still finished first in both races and Azlan is now back on top of the championship standings. The team is very happy and we will continue to work hard for the remaining rounds left this season.” Azlan now leads the SuperSports 600cc standings with 120 points followed by Tamada second, 88.5 points while Zamri sits in third place with 81 points. AFIF REGAINS CONTROL The Underbone 115cc races in Chennai India saw Malaysian rider Ahmad Afif Amran regaining control thanks to a victory in Race 1 and a second placed finish in Race 2. The PETRONAS Hong Leong Yamaha rider who broke the lap record yesterday won Race 1 within 19’59.312s, 0.024s ahead of Indonesian title contender, Hadi Wijaya (R9 Racing Team) who finished second with 19’59.536s. Completing the podium steps was Hadi’s teammate, Ferlando Herdian with 20’00.256s. Feeling extremely motivated, the 18-year old Afif was hoping to further extend his championship lead in Race 2 with another possible win but instead found himself outgunned by compatriot, Mohd Affendi Rosli (Harian Metro Y-TEQ SCK Honda Racing) who took the chequered flag with 20’06.603s in the final seconds of the race. Afif was forced to settle for second place with 20’06.635s while Hadi Wijaya finished third, 20’06.912s. Bagging 45 points from this leg, Afif steals the lead from Hadi Wijaya with 104 points, a one-point advantage over the latter (103 points). Norizman Ismail sits in third overall with 82 points. “Words cant express how happy I feel to get back on top of the standings. The team prepared extensively for this round so it feels really good to achieve what we came here to do,” said Afif. He went on to elaborate on the race, “I tried to pull away early in Race 1 but the other riders were really fast. So I kept close with the frontrunners and attacked in the final lap and our efforts paid off when I won the race ahead of Hadi.” “The same thing happened in Race 2, only this time there was a lot more riders in the front. There was no way I could escape so I opted to keep a steady pace. I was close to overtaking Affendi at the final turn but my bike lost power when exiting. I was quite disappointed but still content to still finish on the podium,” he said. ONO BAGS THE DOUBLE Hiroki Ono scored yet another double win, his second of the season, in the third leg of the 2013 PETRONAS Asia Road Racing Championship at the Madras Motor Race Track in Chennai, India. The Japanese rider took victory in Race 1 with total time of 19’33.885s followed by by Dwi Satria second with 19’34.057s and Khairul Idham Pawi third, 19’34.202s. Ono then went on to bag his second win for the day in Race 2 with 15’48.891s to edge over Gerry Salim in second place and Mohd Fitri Ashraf Razali third, each with 15’49.197s and 15’49.840s respectively. Results SuperSports 600cc Race 1 1.Makoto Tamada (Honda) 27’47.541s 2.Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman (Honda) 27’47.776s 3.Mohd Zamri Baba (Yamaha) 27’53.879s 4.Thitipong Warokorn (Honda) 27’59.974s 5.Tomoyoshi Koyama (Honda) 28’00.378s Race 2 1.Makoto Tamada (Honda) 15’36.927s 2.Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman (Honda) 15’37.218s 3.Mohd Zamri Baba (Yamaha) 15’38.166s 4.Yuki Ito (Yamaha) 15’38.428s 5.Ryuta Kobayashi (Honda) 15’33.367s Overall Standings 1.Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman (Honda) 120 points 2.Makoto Tamada (Honda) 88.5 points 3.Mohd Zamri Baba (Yamaha) 81 points 4.Katsuaki Fujiwara (Kawasaki) 80.5 points 5.Tomoyoshi Koyama (Honda) 53 points Team Standings 1.Musashi Boon Siew Honda Racing 127 points 2.PETRONAS Hong Leong Yamaha 95 points 3.BEET Kawasaki Racing 80.5 points 4.Musashi Boon Siew Honda Racing 51.5 points 5.Manual Tech KYT Kawasaki Racing 51 points Underbone 115cc Race 1 1.Ahmad Afif Amran (Yamaha) 19’59.312s 2.Hadi Wijaya (Yamaha) 19’59.536s 3.Ferlando Herdian (Yamaha) 20’00.256s 4.Harlan Fadhillah (Yamaha) 20’00.374s 5.Mohd Affendi Rosli (Honda) 20’01.371s Race 2 1.Mohd Affendi Rosli (Honda) 20’06.603s 2.Ahmad Afif Amran (Yamaha) 20’06.635s 3.Hadi Wijaya (Yamaha) 20’06.912s 4.Amirul Ariff Musa (Honda) 20’07.166s 5.Harlan Fadhillah (Yamaha) 20’07.232s Overall Standings 1.Ahmad Afif Amran (Yamaha) 104 points 2.Hadi Wijaya (Yamaha) 103 points 3.Norizman Ismail (Honda) 82 points 4.Harlan Fadhillah (Yamaha) 75 points 5.Kazuki Masaki (Honda) 62 points Team Standings 1.Harian Metro Y-TEQ SCK Honda Racing 127 points 2.PETRONAS Hong Leong Yamaha 104 points 3.R9 Racing Team 103 points 4.Pertamina Enduro Nissin R9 Cargloss 75 points Kawasaki KYT Rextor Manual Tech 64 points Asia Dream Cup Race 1 1.Hiroki Ono (JPN) 19’33.885s 2.Dwi Satria (INA) 19’34.057s 3.Khairul Idham Pawi (MAS) 19’34.202s 4.Nakarin Atiratphuvapat (THA) 9’43.650s 5.Jakkrit Swangswat (THA) 19’44.600s Race 2 1.Hiroki Ono (JPN) 15’48.891s 2.Gerry Salim (INA) 15’49.197s 3.Mohd Fitri Ashraf Razali (MAS) 15’49.640s 4.Dwi Satria (INA) 15’49.867s 5.Jakkrit Swangswat (THA) 15’50.316s Overall Standings 1.Hiroki Ono (JPN) 145 points 2.Mohd Fitri Ashraf Razali (MAS) 82 points 3.Gerry Salim (INA) 81 points 4.Khairul Idham Pawi (MAS) 79 points 5.Jakkrit Swangswat (THA) 69 points