Wild-card entrant Nakatomi wins two races at Suzuka

PETALING JAYA: Japanese wild-card entrant Shinichi Nakatomi put the SuperSports 600cc full-season riders in the Petronas Asia Road Racing Championships (ARRC) to shame as he won both the races at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan yesterday.

Nakatomi, a former World Superbike Championship rider and representing RC Koshien, won the red-flagged Race One in 16:09.599. Malaysian Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman (Musashi Boon Siew Honda Racing) settled for second place in 16:09.852 while Japanese Katsuaki Fujiwara (BEET Kawasaki Racing) finished third in 16:09.987. The race was cut short due to several crashes on the slippery track.

Nakatomi went on to prove his win was not a flash in the pan by winning Race Two with a comfortable margin. He clocked 29:11.274, a good 4.680 seconds faster than Fujiwara’s 29:15.954. Azlan settled for third in 29:16.186.

“I feel happy and honoured to win both races today. I did not expect it at all because the competition in this championship is very high with many talented riders,” said Nakatomi.

Azlan was happy to finish both races on the podium. He still leads in the overall standings on 146 points.

“In Race One, I was quite strong and able to keep up with Nakatomi. But I made a mistake of choosing the wrong tyres for Race Two. I went out with a wet set-up but the tracks dried up and I lost traction. I hope to deliver the same performance, if not better, as the championship heads to Autopolis next weekend (Sept 6-8),” said the 29-year old Azlan.

Meanwhile, Harian Metro Y-TEQ SCK Honda Racing’s Mohd Affendi Rosli won the Underbone 115cc class with a time of 15:19.032. Amirul Ariff Musa (Givi Honda Yuzy Pachie) was second in 15:19.243. Hadi Wijaya (R9 Racing Team) took third place in 15:19.254.

Hadi then stepped up his pace to claim his first victory of the season in Race Two in a close finish against Malaysian Ahmad Afif Amran (Petronas Hong Leong Yamaha).

Hadi won in 15:07.392 while Afif completed the race in 15:07.442. In third place was Harlan Fadhillah (Pertamina Enduro Nissin R9 Cargloss) in 15:07.674.