Team PETRONAS Sprinta Racing’s hope for a good Supersports 600cc season finale in Zhuhai, China yesterday fell short of its earlier expectations, although the bigger picture looks promising for the two-year old outfit.

Despite clocking in respectable times during Friday’s practice and Saturday’s qualifying sessions, Round 5 of the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship proved to be a difficult day at the office for Supersports riders Ahmad Zamani Baharuddin and Mohd. Suhadi Ali Rahmat.

Zamani clocked an impressive 1:44.227s to land in provisional fourth on Friday while younger team-mate Suhadi had to be satisfied with seventh doing 1:44.390s. With temperatures in its teens, Saturday turns out to be a downer for Zamani when he had to grapple with the weather and could not better his time. Suhadi, as with the rest of the field, recorded big improvements and was rewarded with 1:42.965s to start from seventh. Zamani with his Friday’s lap time started from eleventh on the grid. 

 In Race 1 on Sunday, although both the riders managed a good start to secure places, technical problems had forced Zamani to retire early. Teammate Suhadi meanwhile, had to fight a tough battle to remain within reach of the leading pack. He finally crossed the chequered flag to finish a commendable 6th.

The ensuing Race 2 also saw both riders clocking in strong lap times throughout the earlier part of the 16-lap race. Midway through however, Zamani’s engine succumbed to a terminal problem forcing him to again retire in lap 7. Continuing his team’s challenge, Suhadi did well to remain within the top ten but was also painfully forced to retire when his engine seized with just four laps to go.

Suhadi later commented, “Despite the engine problem in the second race, overall I am happy with the performance of the bike, especially in the first race. Although it was tough having to cope with the weather condition, I was able to maintain a consistent pace throughout the race and keep within reach of the leading group. I am happy to score more points in the last round.”

Zamani added, “We knew it was going to be a difficult race for us although I was optimistic at the start of the weekend especially after putting in strong laptimes in Friday. But it was not to be my day today.”

Despite the unexpected misfortunes, the experience gained racing in colder climate proved to be invaluable. Team Manager Saiful Amri Abdullah explains, “Coming into this round, we had several opportunities to work on different set-ups during the long lay off between the rounds. But we knew it was always going to be a challenge adapting man and machine to the weather and I am pleased that both riders coped really well in these trying conditions.”

He added, “We were plagued instead by technical problems which hampered our race strategy and affected our results. However, there are a lot of lessons to be learnt from the season and these are the valuable inputs for the team in preparing for our assault on the 2005 season.”

As the 2004 FIM Asia Road Racing Championship winds down to a close, PETRONAS Sprinta Racing Team could still hold their heads up high as both of their riders managed to secure a top ten finish among only four Malaysians in a season largely dominated by foreigners. With a total tally of 83 points, Suhadi clinched 7th overall while Ahmad Zamani secured 8th with 75.5 points.

Here are the full results of yesterday’s races and the corresponding final standings for Supersports 600cc class: