Sunday 13 December

After the excitement and spills of the morning's races could the Asian Road Racing Championship deciders live up to the promise of fine racing and determined action ?

Most definitely they could !

Almost invincible that he was Affendi Rosli was determined to finish in style with another win on his Suzuki amongst the pack of Yamahas.

Eighteen started, fifteen finished the whole 10 laps of the race, only 4 seconds separated the winner from the last finisher after 43 kilometres of hectic abandon and, most remarkable of all, the first eight across the line were within three tenths of second !

Unbelievable !

Quite honestly without transponders it would be physically impossible to write lap charts for the race - no team of scorers, however experienced, could hope to agree on the order across the line on any lap let alone the last one.

Saying how close the race was, until the end, perhaps is not completely fair to Rosli who once again showed that, when it comes to winning, the only time you have to be in front is when that chequered flag falls - and once again he managed it ..... just !

Tugging behind him a Malaysian flag that was bigger than the guy himself, Rosli climed onto the rostrom to collect the winners trophy and the admiration of his peers and the many people who had watched open mouthed at the action. 

There is no doubt that the racing skills learnt by these young riders on the Underbones can be transferred to the larger classes - it is perhaps just a little bit disappointing that there are no longer any active 400s to form a smoother bridge from the small bikes to the big guns but no doubt some, at least, of the Underbone riders will get the recognition they deserve to migrate to both bigger bikes and the ultimate World Championships.

Onto the 600s !!!

With World Superstock 600 Champion Gina Rea bumping a fiery Azlan Shah Kamanaruzaman out of the first race the biggest question was whether eith or both of their bikes would be ready to re-commence battle !

Most certainly they were - thanks to strenuosus efforts by both teams - so a full grid lined up for Asia's final race of the year.

With the two PETRONAS Sprinta Yamaha Thailand riders guaranteed the top two places in the Championship nobody was really expecting either of these riders to take many risks.  Decha needed a good result if he was to overcome the points disdavantage whilst Chalermpol really only had to keep upright with his team mate in his sights, or thereabouts, to realise his dream of a title win.

From the start though the riders with something to prove - the first race fallers and the returning six times Champion from Japan set out to prove that it was to be a race to be remembered for a long time.

The first lap was really like a card shuffle - perahps some of the riders had visited Macau overnight ?

But the top few riders soon sorted themselves out and readed for the battle.   Fisrt Azlan showed what he intended to achieve when he slid the back end into turn one as if it was the only way he could slow the bike down for the corner.

That set the scene for the rest of the race with both Azlan and Rea using similar sliding tactics corner after corner after corner after corner for the whole 18 laps.  Neither held the lead for very long with the other determined to show that he was the chmpion of the slideing rear if nothing else !

Right in the mix - although using his more normal smooth style - was last year's Champion Hamaguchi Toshiyuki who had not competed in any of this year's previosu rounds.  Also up with them were the other Japanese pretender - Inagaki Makoto - and to some extend Decha who was determined to hang in their just in case his chance of a second title came about.
 

Probably the biggest question was whether the tyres could last the sliding that the leading pair were subjecting them to or whether Hamaguchi would show that was still life in the old dag !

But nobody seemed to have told Azlan and Gino that they should be careful and they continued throw their bikes into the corners with aplomb - lap after lap after lap.

Of course all the time Hamaguchi was just sitting there waiting for the opportunity to pounce ....... and so he did on the very last lap ....... although only when Azlan simply outbraked himself into the notorious turn four where he bike had exploded in the first race.  This time he stayed on but let a gap as wide as Pearl River.  I am sure that the Hammer was waving as he sailed past to grab second place.

Inagaki in the maentime had slipped down the field after a few little mistakes while a quietly confident Decha had gently moved forwards to claim fourth spot.   That was not enough to win the Championship though as Chalermpol settled in seventh place knowing that that would be enough to take the massive gold trophy as 2009 Asia Road Racing Champion.

Congratulations all round though to Gino Rea who on his first visit to Zhuhai had shown that he could master the bumps and humps of the tricky circuit to beat all the regulars.  Of course most of us were wishing there could be a third race when everyone would battle at their best without having to worry about the chance of losing points but for that we have to wait for next year.  Perhaps Rea will return ?  In the post race press conference he certainly did not rule that out saying that "I have not signed anything yet so everything is possible".