DOHA: Indonesia’s seasoned Underbone 115cc campaigner Hadi Wijaya will be looking at the probabilities of clinching an unprecedented third Underbone 115cc Asian Champion title as the 2013 PETRONAS FIM Asia Road Racing Championship wraps up its season-finale at the Losail International Circuit on Saturday.
Currently with a 30-point advantage at the top of the championship rankings, Wijaya’s closest competitor is Malaysian rider Ahmad Afif Amran, who arrives in Qatar fresh from winning the CP115 title in the Malaysian national championship (PETRONAS AAM Malaysian Cub Prix Championship) just the week before.
However, the huge points gap mean that even if Afif were to win both races at Losail in Doha, all Wijaya needs is to finish within the top five to seal the deal.
The 2013 season has been tough on the Indonesian rider.
Unlike last year when he won his second title with a whopping seven wins out of 12 races, in 2013, Wijaja had only managed two wins out of ten races to
date.
“The game has certainly changed a lot and everyone is so much more competitive,” said Wijaya.
Nevertheless, the experienced rider who has weathered countless title campaigns knows that championship crowns are won by consistent strong results.
Although he has only chalked up two wins to date, Wijaya has finished on the podium eight times this year, the highest in the Underbone 115cc class to date.
On the other hand, the ‘Best Team Award’ in the Underbone 115cc class may land in the hands of Malaysian-based team Harian Metro Y-TEQ SCK Honda Racing. After five rounds, team SCK has picked up 194 points, leading Wijaya’s R9 Racing Team by
14 points.
The points system for the Team Awards in the PETRONAS FIM Asia Road Racing Championship is amassed through the points picked up by each individual team’s best performing rider in every race.
Team SCK holds the advantage.
The three riders fielded by the team this season, Norizman Ismail, Affendi Rosli and even rookie rider Kazuki Masaki, have all scored race wins this season.
Team SCK’s problem is that even the team principal himself can be hard pressed to predict which one of his riders will pop up at the top step of the podium.
In a scenario like this, most fans would surmise that surely team orders would come into play. But in a discipline like Underbone racing, team
orders are almost impossible to play out.
“We have no way of knowing where our riders will be as the final lap tussle for track position starts to intensify. Because of that, it is virtually impossible for us to try to manipulate the outcome through team orders,” said SCK team owner, Soong Chee Kieong.
Meanwhile, the defending champion team R9 relies heavily on Wijaya to pick up the majority of their points with Ferlando Herdian as a back up in case Hadi suffers a bad round.
Should SCK succeed in their quest to win the Underbone 115cc Team Award trophy, this will be one of the rare times that the Underbone awards are split with the rider’s award going one way, and the team award going another.
THE PENINSULA
