It was a nerve-wrecking race last Sunday after Team Suzuki Pilipinas takes the spotlight at the last Leg of the Suzuki Asian Challenge held at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand.
Mario Borbon, who gave Team Suzuki Pilipinas a stellar 2nd championship win after a head to head battle with his ASEAN contenders. The 30 year-old Borbon proves that his years of experience and perseverance at the race track will one day bring him his 1st top position at the Suzuki Asian Challenge podium.
Coming from behind during the practice race, the Visayas Rider showed his improvement during race 1 as he led the pack in one of the laps of the race. More hopeful on the second and final round, he was able to maintain a good position during the race together with EJ Sobretodo who was also leading during the 5th and 6th lap. However, Sobretodo crashed due to a collision with a Sri Lankan rider during his last turn leaving Borbon to lead the remaining of the race.
Meanwhile, Mindanao rider April King Mascardo managed to stay at the 6th Place. Ej, April and Mario’s final standing is at the 5th, 6th and 7th Place respectively.
Suzuki Asian Challenge (SAC) is Suzuki’s single platform race series in the ARRC program, operated and organized by former Suzuki MotoGP and WSBK rider Yukio Kagayama.
Now on its second year, SAC is designed to give an opportunity to riders who share the same dream to one day become a world-class rider. Everyone will race and learn together through SAC what is required to become one, and selected riders will be given an opportunity to step-up to a higher category in Asia, and in the world, with MotoGP being their ultimate goal.
Here are the Final Suzuki Asian Challenge Point Rankings:
1. #20 Jefri Tosema (Indonesia) 159
2. #87 Muhammad Sapril (Indonesia) 143
3. #12 Rozaliman Zakaria (Malaysia) 138
4. #30 Rizal Feriyadi (Indonesia) 115
5. #43 April King Mascardo (Philippines) 107
6. #22 Eane Jaye Solacito (Philippines) 105
7. #29 Mario U. Borbon Jr. (Philippines) 104
8. #27 Shinnosuke Sato (Japan) 88
9. #11 Maxi Hattori (Japan) 75
10. #5 Jagan Kumar (India) 65
11. #14 Arsyad Rusydi Shaharum (Singapore) 53
12. #41 Akito Haga (Japan) 46
13. #46 Aaron Gunawardena (Sri Lanka) 38
14. #21 Nguyen Ngoc Ho (Vietnam) 29
15. #96 Bikram Thapa (Nepal) 21
16. #23 Kannan Subramaniam (India) 19
17. #78 Md Iqbal Azhar (Malaysia) 16
18. #81 Nattapat Suprasertkamkit (Thailand) 14
19. #50 Mithun Kumar (India) 12
20. #39 Nguyen Hoang Anh Dung (Vietnam) 7
*All photos courtesy of www.suzuki-racing.com