Indians fair poorly in qualifying rounds in Yamaha ASEAN Cup

Bogor(Indonesia): India's Ananth Raj will be starting a poor 16th from the grid followed by Vivek Pillai in the 10th Yamaha ASEAN Cup Race as hosts Indonesia and Thailand dominated the qualifying rounds here today.

Chennai lad Ananth secured his fastest lap timing of 2:01.149 minutes in the second qualifying round as it was marginally better than his disappointing first lap crash in the qualifying one of the ST (Sport) category.

Indian riders improved on their lap timings at the qualification two after an ordinary first session at the Sentul International Circuit here.

Vivek, also from Chennai, finished behind his teammate with his best lap coming in 2:01.379 minutes at the 3.96 km long track.

Others Indian riders, Akash Dingare (2:02.390), Shyam Shankar (2:02.673) and Lal Rindika (2:03.596) too bettered their lap timing in the second round to finish 20th, 21st and 22nd position.

The competitors, in this category, were riding on Yamaha's YZF-R15 model.

Participating in his maiden international race, 23-year-old Ananth said his main focus for tomorrow's race would be on joining the leading bunch from the start.

"I will be starting on the sixth lane. My aim would be to join the second row at the beginning of the race. There are areas on the track where I can improve few seconds to get better timings. I have started to get the hang of this track," said Ananth, who crashed in the practice round as well.

"In the last practice session, I crashed in the final lap and the first qualifying elimination was terrible".

But Ananth recovered well from the two crashes he suffered initially to be the best amongst the Indians.

On his experience of riding at an international arena, he said,"You get to learn a lot after watching these guys. They don't wait for corners to overtake other riders. A minimal opening and they will just whiz past you. It's incredible".

The pole position for tomorrow's race was bagged by Thailand's Prawat Yannawut who finished with the best time of 1:58.063 minute followed by Agus Setiawan of Indonesia (1:58.427).Third fastest was Anupab Sarmoon of Thailand (1:58.547) and was followed by his teammate, Paitoon Nakthong (1:58.555).

India team manger Shamsher Sharma said the boys have the potential to show their mettle at this event.

"We have a very talented team. They can match up to the best. I am hoping for something extraordinary from these guys tomorrow," said Sharma, who is the head of Yamaha Motorsport Marketing Division, India .

Riders from five ASEAN countries are participating in this competition, while Japan , home of the motor giant, has been invited as special entry.

"I am pretty satisfied with my performance. It's been only one-and-a-half years that I have started racing professionally. I feel there is a significant improvement in my skills which will take me further in the sport," said Lal from Mizoram.

In the MT (Manual Transmission) category, competed on Yamaha Jupter Z1, hosts Indonesia ruled the roost over the two qualifying rounds with top four positions bagged by their riders.

Indonesia's Shyahrul Amin bagged pole for the race day tomorrow with best lap timing of 1:58.920 minute, while his compatriots Richard Taroreh (1:59.068), Reza Dhanica (1:59.994) and Gelang Hendra (2:00.395) followed him. No Indian is participating in this category.

Indonesia and Thailand have dominated these championships with former bagging five overall team titles, while four were captured by the latter, and the two ASEAN look set to continue their supremacy in Sunday's race.