Syamsul Bakhtiar Esa of RND Plus Racing Team continued his fine form in the Malaysia Desmo Cup series when he won Race 2 in the battle of the Ducati machines at Sepang International Circuit (SIC) today.
Slotted as the final itinerary of the three-day eni FIM Superbike World Championship 2015 Malaysian Round, Syamsul, who rides a Ducati 1089 machine, took 19 minutes 25.173 second to sweep aside the challenge of Azwan Abdul Malek and 11 other competitors.
Riding a Ducati 1198 machine, Azwan finished 4.556 seconds behind Syamsul to take second place. HidayatHarun took third place in a Ducati 848 for the new racing series, which was introduced this year by Ducati Club Malaysia.
The second edition of the World SBK is Sepang would be remembered by the brilliant performance of Britain’s Jonathan Rea, who now has one hand on the world crown after winning Race 1 and finishing second behind compatriot Chaz Davies in Race 2. With three more rounds to go, the Kawasaki Racing rider has amassed 452 championship points and a 144-point advantage over Davies, who has 308 points
The World Supersport race in Sepang was won by American Patrick Jacobsen of CORE Motorsport Thailand. The additional 25 points puts him on 140 points and third overall in the standings, which has Turkish Kenan Sofuoglu, who finished third today, at the top of the championship with 168 points. Finishing second in today’s contest, Frenchman Jules Cluzel is second overall with 155 points.
A total of 22,664 spectators attended the three-day event including 10,087 on Race Day today. It had 5,431 spectators for Friday and an attendance of 7,146 spectators on Saturday.
From the Malaysian perspective, the best news coming from the event was the brilliant performance of youngster Muhammad Adam Norrodin and FakhrusyRostam in the Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup (SAATC). Adam took second place in Race 1 while Fashrusy showed high maturity in taking third place in a crazy Race 2, which saw multiple falls and a red flag.
The weekend was also highlighted by the future of Malaysia’s Moto3 rider Muhammad ZulfahmiKhairuddin, who came to the circuit to assist his brother Ahmad Idham in the SAATC. After lengthy heart-to-heart talk with SIC CEO, Zulfahmi was allowed to continue to race for SIC Racing Team until the end of the season.
Hence, fans will get to see Zulfahmi in action at Sepang’s next big event – the 2015 Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix in October along with two other local heroes – HafizhSyahrin Abdullah and Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman in the Moto2 World Championship.
RESULTS – MALAYSIA DESMO CUP (8 LAPS) RACE 2
1. Syamsul Bakhtiar Esa (Ducati 1089) 19’25.173s
2. Azwan Abdul Malek (Ducati 1198) 19’29.729s
3. Hidayat Harun (Ducati 848) 19’43.648s
4. Muhammad Akhimillah Zalani (Ducati 1199) 19.44.1699s
5. Erman Hassbullah Abdul Manan (Ducati 899) 19’44.429s
