Everything to play for ahead of Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup racing in Japan

The 22 riders of the 2014 Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup will head for Motegi for their seventh race of the year, coinciding with the MotoGP™ World Championship’s visit to the Japanese venue.

As the Championship heads to Japan, the local riders in the inaugural season of the Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup remain the front runners in the current standings.

Yuta Date is the current leader with 112 points, after accumulating two wins and three further podiums so far. However, in the second of the Sepang races, which took place at the end of September, he only managed sixth place – his first non-podium finish of the year – giving hope to his rivals chasing him for the title.

Date’s compatriots Kaito Toba and Ayumu Sasaki are the two riders closest to him in the points tally, in second and third place respectively. Toba is making a steady comeback after adding a DNF in the opening round in Qatar and has won three races, leaving him just four points adrift of Date.

Meanwhile, Sasaki, who is the youngest rider in the competition, had a mixed weekend at Sepang as he crashed out of the first race and won the second. He has 86 points in total and trails Date by 26 points with three races remaining.

Also looking forward to the Motegi race on home territory are Ryo Mizuno and Takuma Kunimine, who are fourth and fifth in the standings, with 75 and 65 points respectively.

Sixth in the standings – and the highest ranked non-Japanese rider – is the Malaysian Adam Norrodin, who sent the home crowd wild in Sepang with his first podium of the year in the second race of that weekend. Likewise, Norrodin’s fellow countryman Shafiq Rasol also grabbed his maiden podium in Sepang and sits eighth overall.

Riders such as Thai pair Nakarin Atiraphuvapat and Muklada Sarapuech will be looking for their first podium results having done well in practice but having not yet stepped onto the rostrum.

The seventh race of the 2014 Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup will see the 22 young Asian riders look to turn their potential into performance as the end of season is closing in on them.

Motegi is scheduled for 13 laps on Sunday October 12th at 15:45 (GMT +9).

For more information visit: www.asiatalentcup.com