Honda Racing India gains 16 points in Indonesian ARRC round

The curtains came down on the penultimate 5th round of Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC) on Sunday at the Sentul International Circuit as it turned out to be a closely contested affair in both SuperSport 600 and Asia Production 250 class with Indonesian riders dominating the show.

Representing Honda's newly formed first Indian team 'IDEMITSU' were Rajiv Sethu & Anish Shetty in Asia Production 250 class and Taiga Hada in the SuperSport 600cc class.

Hada, 20, entered the race on a confident note and qualified 9th on the grid. After suspension setting adjustment and warm-up, Hada was still not completely confident while entering the grid.

But with no time remaining, Hada changed his race strategy to maintain his position during the race. In race 2, Hada finished 10th clocking his lap time of 1:31: 025 and earned another 6 points for the team.

Overall, Hada has won 16 points for IDEMITSU. With this, Hada is now ranked 9th out of the 31 contenders in the 600cc Team Championship point tally and Hondas solo Indian team has accumulated a total of 72 points in the season so far, ranking 7th of the total 15 teams in 600cc class.

On the other hand, with the top four riders in AP 250 Race 2 being home favourites from Indonesia, it was a positive day for the Indian duo of Rajiv and Anish.

Not only did the duo record their respective fastest lap times but also gained second and third positions respectively in race 2. Post the Indonesian round, the IDEMITSU has climbed to top 15 out of 23 teams in AP 250 class.

Starting 23rd, Rajiv climbed to the 16th position in the second lap and maintained this till the 8th lap. But a technical glitch pushed him back to 21st by the last lap. However, it was also a memorable day for Rajiv, who broke all past highs to register his best ever lap time of 1:45:166 in the Sentul circuit.

Starting from the back at 27th, Anish made a strong start and gained three positions in the first corner itself. Thereafter, it was a battle till the chequered flag between Anish, Japan's Suzuki Takashi and Malaysia's Muhammad Idil Mahadi for the 23rd spot. A hard braking in the chicane in last lap cost him a spot and he closed 24th.

However, Anish recorded his fastest lap time of 1:47:552 in today's Race 2.

--IANS

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