Anthony West flocks 4th win, stays in line for maiden ARRC

Australia's Anthony West continued his hot formas he scored a lights-to-flag victory, his second of the weekend, to stamp his class in the premier SuperSport 600cc in the fourth round of FIM Asia Road Racing Championship at the MMRT track near here today.

Such was the 37-year old West's supremacy that he won by over seven seconds while recording his fourth win of the season which put him in line for his maiden ARRC title.

While West cruised to victory on his Yamaha, behind him Tomoyoshi Koyoma (MUSASHi Boon Siew Honda), a former MotoGP rider, won a thrilling scrap with fellow-Japanese, the 19-year old Taiga Hada (Idemitsu Honda Racing India), to grab the second spot.

It was the second podium of the weekend for Hada.

Rafid Topan Sucipto (Yamaha) and Andy Muhammad Fadly (Kawasaki) delivered a 1-2 for Indonesia in the Asia Production 250cc race ahead of Thailand's Anupab Sarmoon (Yamaha) in a near photo-finish with barely three-tenth of a second separating the trio.

For the two Indian riders in this category, Rajiv Sethu and Anish Damodara Shetty, it was a disappointing finish as they ended up 16th and 19th and out of points.

Among the most notable podium finishers of the day was 14-year old Australian boy Travis Hall who fought his way to third place, his first podium of the season, in the second race of the Underbone 150cc class while Malaysians Ahmad Fazli Sham and Md Helmi Azman took the top two positions.

Incidentally, the championship leader in this category Indonesian Rheza Danica Ahrens, who had notched five wins in a row, finished a distant 17th following a crash early in the race.

Bengaluru's Abhishek Vasudev and Aravind Balasubramaniam (Chennai) shared the honours in the two Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup races.

However, in the championship stakes, Coimbatore's Senthil Kumar, with two second-place finishes, moved to the top of the leaderboard with 99 points, ahead of Vasudev (88) and Anish Shetty (86) who sat out both the races due to injury.

The TVS One-Make Championship (Apache RR310) double-header saw close races as Vivek Pillai and PM Soorya, both from Chennai, won one apiece.

The victory helped Pillai (94 points) close in on championship leader Deepak Ravikumar (98), who finished second and fifth in the two races, Soorya managed to move up to mid-table with a tally of 33.

Results: SuperSport 600cc (Race-2, 16 laps):
1.Anthony West (Australia, Webike Kazuchi Racing, Yamaha) (27mins, 10.157secs);
2. Tomoyoshi Koyama (Japan, Musashi Boon Siew Honda Racing) (27:17.240);
Asia Production 250cc (Race-2, 12 laps):
1. Rafid Topan Sucipto (Indonesia, Yamalube KYT TJM WR Super Battery) (22:00:544);
2. Andy Muhammad Fadly (Indonesia, Manual Tech KYT Kawasaki Racing) (22:00.686);
Underbone 150cc (Race-2):
1. Ahmad Fazli Sham (Malaysia, Onexox TKKR Racing) (18:59.247);
2. Md.Helmi Azman (Malaysia, SCK Rapido Hi Rev Honda Racing) (18:59.355);
Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup (CBR 250) organised by MMSC (Race-1, 6 laps):
1. Abhishek Vasudev (Bengaluru) (12:18.230);
2. Senthil Kumar (Coimbatore) (12:18.792);
Race 2 (8 laps): Aravind Balasubramaniam (16:31.817);
2.Senthil Kumar (16:32.049);
TVS One-Make Championship (Apache RR310) Race 1 (6 laps):
1. Vivek Pillai (Chennai) (13:04.471);
2. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai) (13:06.967);
Race 2 (8 laps):
1. PM Soorya (Chennai) (16:17.261);
2. Vivek Pillai (16:17.821);