Akeno Speed Racing’s Makoto Inagaki got off to a rapid start as he opened Day One of the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship pre-season test fastest ahead of Mohd Zamri Baba (Musashi Boon Siew Honda Racing) and Ahmad Yudhistira (Manual Tech Kawasaki) at the Sepang Circuit.
The Japanese rider topped the SuperSports 600cc timesheets after logging in 1’06.139s in the first session, outpacing his Honda and Kawasaki rival by 0.012 seconds and 0.033 seconds respectively.
Wrapping up the top five for the day were Tomoyoshi Koyama (T Pro Yuzy Honda NTS) and M.Fadli (Astra Honda Racing Team) with 1’06.477s and 1’06.548s respectively.
The SuperSports 600cc field was hoping to make further progress in the second session but a heavy downpour around 3pm brought an end to fast lap times for the day.
Although the storm passed within the hour, the amount of surface water meant that a return to optimum dry conditions is unlikely before the scheduled 6pm closing time and as a result only seven riders went out to refine their wet setup.
“This being Sepang, we were expecting rain and so we managed to get most of our work done in time before it came. However we are still very far from perfect,” confirmed Inagaki.
“It was a short but very important test. We tried some new parts so we could tell the engineers the right way to take in their development for the next two days,” he added.
Meanwhile Japan’s Takehiro Yamamoto threw down the gauntlet to dominate the new Asia Production 250cc (AP250). The Trickstar Racing rider posted his flying lap in the first session in 1’17.463s to create a massive 3.5 seconds gap ahead of closest contender, Mohd Fairuz Nasir (Felda PB Racing) who clocked 1’20.995s. Takehiro’s teammate, Ryunosuke Hyodo registered third with 1’20.997s.
Maju Motor Racing duo, Abdul Muhaimin Roslan and Ahmad Fazli Sham topped the Underbone 130cc test sessions with 1’21.549s and 1’21.473s respectively while Affendi Rosli (PETRONAS Hong Leong Yamaha) trailed in third place with 1’21.592s.
The Asia Dream Cup saw Philippines’ Koko Masaharu come out on top with 1’22.168s followed by Japan’s Hiroki Nakamura with 1’22.357s and Malaysia’s Hafiz Nor Azman third, 1’22.591s.
As for the Suzuki Asian Cup, India’s Jagan Kumar made an impressive debut to top Day One with 1’29.606s with Indonesia’s Adhi Chandra and Andreas Gunawan trailing behind with 1’29.694s and 1’29.848s.
Testing will resume on Thursday, April 2.
Day One Test Results
SuperSports 600cc
1.Makoto Inagaki (Yamaha) 1’06.139s 2.Mohd Zamri Baba (Honda) 1’06.151s 3.Ahmad Yudhistira (Kawasaki) 1’06.372s 4.Tomoyoshi Koyama (Honda) 1’06.477s 5.M.Fadli (Honda) 1’06.458s
Asia Production 250cc
1.Takehiro Yamamoto (Kawasaki) 1’17.463s 2.Fairuz Nasir (Kawasaki) 1’20.995s 3.Ryunosuke Hyodo (Kawasaki) 1’20.997s 4.Li Zheng Pang (Yamaha) 1’21.160s 5.Amirul Ariff Musa (Honda) 1’21.201s
Underbone 130cc
1.Abdul Muhaimin Roslan (Yamaha) 1’21.549s 2.Ahmad Fazli Sham (Yamaha) 1’21.473s 3.Affendi Rosli (Yamaha) 1’21.592s 4.Adib Rosley (Yamaha) 1’21.759s 5.Azhar Abdul Jalil (Yamaha) 1’22.038s
Asia Dream Cup
1.Koko Masaharu C.Tadchi (PHI) 1’22.168s 2.Hiroki Nakamura (JPN) 1’22.357s 3.Hafiz Nor Azman (MAS) 1’22.591s 4.Shankar Sarath Kumar )IND) 1’22.763s 5.Arsyad Rusydi (SIN) 1’22.920s
Suzuki Asian Challenge
1.Jagan Kumar (IND) 1’29.606s 2.Adhi Chandra (INA) 1’29.694s 3.Andreas Gunawan (INA) 1’29.848s 4.Hazil Juraimi (SIN) 1’29.996s 5.Nazirul Izzat Bahauddin (MAS) 1’30.050s
