Round 4 of the Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup (Shell Cup) came to another dramatic close at the Zhuhai International Circuit in China. The final race was marred by an accident that took out four Malaysian riders, and two Japanese riders, while the final result was not decided until the final charge to the chequered flag.
Eventual winner Yuta Date did not have it easy, in fact he seemed set to finish the race off the podium for the first time. The race was so closely fought that all the five leading riders finished within 0.4 seconds of each other. Date crossed the line first just ahead of his countrymen Kunimine and Sasaki.
The race was doused with some suspense as some overnight rain led to a wet track. The officials then thought it best to give the riders a 15 minute warm up to have a feel for the conditions on track. And though the track was dry by the time the riders went out, there were some slippery spots that took out some of the inexperienced riders. All walked away with no injuries.
However the biggest incident the series has yet to see came on lap two of race two when a low side by one of the riders took out five others. The riders involved were Yoshidia, Kitami and Malaysian quartet – Azman, Ezzariq, Rasol and Bahauddin. The red flag was expectedly shown and the race was reduced from 15 to 9 laps.
Most riders walked away fine but Yoshida suffered a fractured thumb. However in the spirit of the rules, none were allowed to take part in the restart. The situation in the pits however was understandably tense with some tears and concerns.
In the restarted contest Kaito Toba – the winner of Saturday’s race – took an early lead, with Date, Kunimine, Sasaki and Mizuno following him closely. The battle between those five riders continued throughout the shortened race, with Toba eventually unable to maintain the lead after he ran wide on the last corner of the final lap. He eventually finished in fourth place.
Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup Director Alberto Puig commented, “Luckily the crash was not as bad as we first feared. The race was shorter and not as fast as yesterday (Saturday, Race 1), with a bigger leading group and a new rider on the podium in Kunimine. It is always good to see new faces at the front. After the morning rain it was unclear which tyres use, so we opted for slicks and we saw that it was the right choice. It is another race done and now we look ahead to Malaysia.”
Race winner Date stated, “I will be able to have a great holiday from here to Sepang because of this victory. The most important purpose of this race was making a gap between me and the second rider in general standing, Toba. I was able to do that so I’m very happy! After the first red flag it was very difficult to keep concentration but I managed to control my mind and make a good start to battle in the top group. The fight was not dangerous so I enjoyed it a lot.”
With two wins and two additional podiums in four races Date leads the standings with 86 points, 23 ahead of Toba and 25 in front of Sasaki.
Of the Malaysian riders though, only Adam Norrodin, Ibrahim Norrodin and Fakhrusy Rostam finished the race. All the Malaysian riders had started the race with what was arguably their best start to the season, in fact all the Malaysians were in the top 10 position with Adam and Ibrahim up in second and third place. However the incident took out most of the Malaysian riders and Adam ended up finishing the race in a lonely eight place, Fakhrusy in 10th and Ibrahim following close in 11th. All the Malaysian riders vow vengeance at their home race in Sepang.
The next Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup race takes place on 21st September in Sepang, the fifth of eight races in the inaugural season of the competition.
