National motorcycle racer, Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman hints early retirement from active racing on the Asian stage.
In speaking to Harian Metro, Azlan revealed that he has not received an answer on his team’s participation in the 2024 Asian Road Racing Championship (ARRC). His current team, TKKR Racing Team posted on Facebook recently that they could not secure a sponsor for the 2024 season, thereby throwing theirs and Azlan’s immediate future into doubt.
“I will retire early from Asian competition if I do not receive an offer. I have already set a target to race at the Asian level until I am 40,” he said.
“Realistically, other teams prefer hiring younger racers compared to older ones. My body isn’t as strong now… I can still fight it out but I need twice the effort to slug it out with them in terms of stamina.”
On a more positive note, Azlan may switch to racing in the Endurance World Championship (EWC) in 2025 should this year’s ARRC participation does not come to pass. He had already raced at the 2023 Suzuka 8-Hour Endurance as part of the EWC calendar in the Formula EWC class with Frontier Racing.
Azlan has an impressive resume, having won several national superbike titles while riding for Chia PJ Kawasaki and took part in the Moto2 World Championship from 2013 to 2015. He was also the inaugural ASB1000cc class champion in ARRC in 2019, riding for then ONEXOX TKKR SAG Racing Team. He currently owns the AS25 Academy Racing Team which races in the WIRA category in the Petronas Malaysian Cub Prix Championship.
