The young riders competing in the 2016 Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup are all set for their final battle of the season at the Sepang International Circuit over the 28th-30th October weekend, coinciding with MotoGP™ visiting the venue for the Grand Prix of Malaysia.
The title fight at the head of the standings is an intriguingly balanced affair with a number of riders in with a shot of winning the Cup over the weekend in Sepang, which will see them race on Saturday and Sunday.
With these final two races remaining, Ai Ogura arrives in Malaysia leading the Cup standings with 160 points, ahead of Somkiat Chantra on 153 points and Ryusei Yamanaka on 144. Andi Izdihar is fourth on 142 points and Gerry Salim completes the current top five on 136 points, with plenty still to play for at the final round of the season.
The 2016 season has seen the riders gather significant experience as they have honed their race craft under the watchful eye of Alberto Puig, Director of the Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup, with races in Thailand, Qatar, Malaysia, China and Japan.
At Motegi last time out it was it was Yuki Kunii who took victory in Race 1, doing so from pole in front of the Japanese fans and joined by his compatriots Kazuki Masaki and Ai Ogura on the podium. In Race 2 Ogura got the win, and was joined on the podium by compatriots Ryusei Yamanaka and Masaki in a highly successful weekend for the Japanese riders at their home event.
The track: Built for speed and exciting racing, the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia is one of the world’s best. At 5.543km in length, with 10 right turns and five left hand corners the track is made all the more challenging for riders by intense heat and humidity. With four slow corners following two long straights and ten medium to high-speed corners, the riders on the 2016 Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup grid know the track well having also race there in May as part of WorldSBK’s Malaysian round.
Qualifying and Race Schedule.-
The riders will contest their positions on the Sepang grid in qualifying at 5.25pm local time on Friday 28th October, before their first 13-lap race of the weekend at 4.30pm local time on the Saturday. The 2016 Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup then concludes with a second 13-lap race around the superb Sepang track at 4.30pm local time on the Sunday.
What happened in 2015?
In last year’s ‘Sepang 2’ visit for the Asia Talent Cup riders Takuma Kunimine of Japan was the victor in the first race of the weekend, scoring a runaway victory ahead of Andi Izdihar and Yuta Date. In Race 2 Japan’s Kazuki Masaki was the winner of the 12th and final race of the 2015 Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup, after a great battle with Kunimine and with Malaysian rider Adam Norrodin third.
