DOHA: Akeno Speed Racing’s Makoto Inagaki powered to a fantastic pole position in a hard-fought qualifying session for the final round of the Petronas Asia Road Racing Championship at the Losail International Circuit in Doha yesterday.
The seasoned contender shocked rivals to steal pole in the last five minutes of the qualifying session with a record lap time of 2’04.646s replacing the previous 2’05.379s benchmark set by reigning champion, Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman last season.
Lining alongside Inagaki are SuperSports 600cc title candidates Yuki Ito (Petronas Hong Leong Yamaha) and Zamri Baba (Musashi Boon Siew Honda) with 2’04.727s and 2’04.743s respectively.
Second row is made up of Zaqhwan Zaidi 2’04.851s followed by Yudhistira (Manual Tech KYT Kawasaki Racing) 2’04.958s and championship leader, Katsuaki Fujiwara (BEET Kawasaki Racing) with 2’05.186s.
Makoto Tamada would be the last of the riders to break last season’s qualifying lap record. He will take off from third row having clocked his best lap time at 2’05.324s alongside Jakkrit Swangswat (AP Honda Thailand) and Tomoyoshi Koyama (T.Pro Yuzy Honda) with 2’05.391s and 2’05.450s respectively.
“It’s great satisfaction to finally obtain pole – quite unexpected too,” said Inagaki.
“We have been through some difficult times over the past few seasons and to finally improve feels good.,” he added.
Meanwhile, underbone 130cc leader, Gupita Kresna returned from a low-key run in Friday’s opening practice to seize pole position for the final round of the 2014 Petronas Asia Road Racing Championship at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar. The Kawasaki KYT Rextor Manual Tech rider will start from front row alongside Indonesian compatriot, Ferlando Herdian (Faito Factory Racing) and Kazuki Masaki (Team Honda RSC).
Yesterday’s Asia Dream Cup qualifying at the final leg of the 2014 PETRONAS Asia Road Racing Championship saw Malaysian, Khairul Idham Pawi secure pole with Aditya Pangestu and Koko Masaharu securing front row slots. Khairul who had secured the overall title in the previous round claimed his fifth pole for the season after Sepang, Indonesia, Suzuka and Thailand with 2’31.444s in his 13th lap around the floodlit desert circuit.
Indonesia’s Aditya came in second with 2’32.769s followed by Japan’s Koko Masaharu with 2’33.120s.THE PENINSULA
