Yamaha ASEAN Cup Race begins tomorrow

Jakarta: The stage is set for the annual racing extravaganza of the ASEAN region when the Yamaha Cup begins with the qualifying rounds, here tomorrow.

Forty-one riders, in two categories, will battle it out to be the best in the Asian region at the Sentul International Circuit, around 50km South from here.

The qualifying rounds will be followed by race day on Sunday to crown the number one rider in the region.

There will be a host of activities around the event, including Yamaha Safe Riding Science (YSRS) program for school children, a demo run by Yamaha's MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo, live concerts, etc.

Host Indonesia and Thailand have dominated these championships with the former bagging five overall team titles, while four were captured by the latter.

The international one-make championship will be held in two new categories -- ST (Sport) Class using the Yamaha's YZF-R15 model and MT (Manual Transmission) Class riding Jupiter Z1 of the Japanese auto giant on the 3.96 km long track.

Each class will be competed in a two-heat race format with the final places being decided on the basis of total championship points for the two heats.

Three riders from Japan will also be competing as special entries in the race, which has been hosted by Indonesia for the fourth time.

Five riders from India will be participating in the ST class. They are the top riders from the three rounds of the National level R15 One Make Race Championship 2013 that was recently concluded at the Madras Motor Race Track in Chennai.

"We have a lot of expectations from our young team. We have followed the performances of these guys throughout the year. They have been doing very well. I hope they shine here as well," said Shamsher Sharma, Head, Motorsport Marketing Division, India .

"Earlier we had participated with only expert riders but for the first time, we haven taken novice riders as well. It will be interesting to see they perform," said the Indian team manager.

The participating nations include Malaysia and Philippines, besides Thailand and Indonesia.

On India's chances of hosting this event, Yamaha Indonesia Chief Yutaka Terada said, "I have stayed in India for a good amount of time. There is a very good racing track in Chennai. We haven't thought about our next venue."

Indian riders: Vivek Pillai (Chennai), Ananth Raj (Chennai), Shyam Shankar (Chennai), Akash Dingare (Pune) and Lal Rindika (Mizoram).