Asia Talent Team ready for penultimate round in Jerez

Having returned to action at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao at the end of August, after the long summer break, the next stop for the Asia Talent Team’s five young riders is the Circuito de Jerez, where they will compete in two races in the penultimate round of this season’s FIM Repsol CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship.

At Portimao Kaito Toba, Andi Izdihar and Nakarin Atiratphuvapat collected points whilst crashes for Kazuki Masaki and Ayumu Sasaki meant both missed out on the points. Toba took sixth place in Portugal, consolidating his third place in the championship, whilst in 12^th place Izdihar got his first points in the series. Atiratphuvapat was on target for a stronger result, but a late penalty for exceeding track limits saw him dropped to tenth.

Portimao marked the first time in 2016 that Masaki missed out on the points but he remains in the championship top ten overall regardless, whilst for Sasaki he still sits sixth in the standings and retains a realistic chance of finishing fourth overall, despite his misfortune at the Portuguese round.

Meanwhile in the recent Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup visit to Aragon Sasaki won Race 2 and secured the title in the competition, whilst Toba was the winner in Race 1. Elsewhere, Masaki and Izdihar managed to fit in a trip to China for the Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup where Masaki finished fourth in Race 2 at the Zhuhai International Circuit, with Izdihar on the podium in second in Race 1 to keep his title hopes alive.

Last year at Jerez it was not the best of weekends for the Asia Talent Team as Toba crashed in both races, whilst former rider Adam Norrodin missed out on the points in both contests, with the team’s other 2015 rider Yuta Date salvaging some pride in sixth place in the second race of the weekend.

This year Toba will hope to do much better and Masaki and Sasaki will also look to strengthen their respective top ten championship positions. Izdihar and Atiratphuvapat hope to seize the opportunity to build up more experience at a Grand Prix racing venue.

Two Qualifying sessions will take place on Saturday 1^st October at 10:50 Local Time and 13:50 Local Time to decide the grid for Sunday’s two Moto3 Junior World Championship races. Those races (both 16 laps) are scheduled to begin at 11:00 Local Time and 14:00 Local Time on Sunday 2^nd October. The races can be seen live here.