Toba and Azman complete a challenging Czech WorldSSP round 

PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders Toba and Azman’s results at Autodrom Most fail to reflect their hard work over the weekend. 

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The fifth WorldSSP championship round at Autodrom Most has now concluded for the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team, with riders Kaito Toba and Syarifuddin Azman placing twenty-fourth and twenty-eighth in Race 2.

Sunday’s action began with a damp warm-up, during which Toba completed four laps to assess changes made to his CBR600RR ahead of Race 2, while Azman elected to remain in the garage.

Twenty-first on the grid for the afternoon’s 19-lap Race 2, which ran in dry conditions, Toba positioned twenty-third through the opening laps, jostling for space as part of a large group of riders, mid-field. Lapping with very similar times to those around him, the Japanese rider had difficulty making his presence felt. Holding twenty-third throughout the first half of the race, Kaito slipped one position once the tyre performance dropped, concluding this final race in twenty-fourth place. 

Getting away from row eleven, rookie Azman was able to navigate the first turns to his advantage, moving up five places almost immediately and lying less than a second from his teammate. As the race went on, the Malaysian began to slip back, struggling with a lack of grip. Doing his best to maintain his pace, Azman crossed the line in twenty-eighth.

At the end of this fifth championship round, Toba lies twenty-first in the classification (10 points), while rookie Azman is yet to score. The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team now has a few weeks in which to prepare for round six, set to take place at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli over the weekend of 13-15 June.

Kaito Toba #27: “Today’s warm-up was on a damp track, which didn’t give us much of a chance to verify the setup changes we’d made. In the race, I didn’t really have a good feeling with the bike and all I could really do was keep my head down, keep riding and get to the chequered flag. We’ll analyse the data and work to prepare well for the next round at Misano.”

Syarifuddin Azman #63: “It was a difficult weekend in general. During race 2, I made quite a good start despite almost colliding with another rider through turn 2. I tried to manage the race and increase the pace with respect to race 1. The feeling with the bike was better and I want to thank the whole team for all their hard work. They’re really helping me to build confidence on the bike. Now we look forward to Misano, a track I know and where I’ll do my best to push harder.”