In the closest contest so far in the Yamaha R3 bLU cRU Asia Pacific Championship, Haydn Fordyce came through to claim his maiden win in the series. To do so he had to outwit a group of seven riders scrapping for supremacy. It was a confident, measured performance after overheating problems had waylaid him in Qualifying, leaving him with a third row start.
Earlier in the day, a whole host of factors had contributed to qualifying times being around two seconds faster than last time out at Buriram for Round 1, exactly three months ago. For a start, air temperatures were 10 degrees cooler at 31 degrees, which, as well as being kinder to the riders, made for better tyre performance on the cooler asphalt. Yamaha had also upgraded the bikes by equipping them with Autotune ECUs and quickshifters.
Wildcard Teeranai Tubtim led most of Qualifying, until Sakchai Khongduangdee pipped him to pole by two tenths with a late lap of 1:58.386. Tanakit Pratumtong was close behind in third, while Theppitak Kraiyafai, Kakeru Okunuki, and Ryan Larkin came through to make up row two. Fordyce found himself seventh and was joined on row three by Pasavee Detraksa and Chayakorn Saeong.When the lights went out for the 12-lap race, Teeranai got away well from the middle of the front row and, after a hectic but clean first lap, led the field across the line, with Larkin, Tanakit and Fordyce, who had made up three places from his starting position, in closest pursuit. As the race developed, Sakchai and Kakeru joined them in a group of six which began to edge away from Nattakorn Kammayee and Chayakorn. Slipstreaming between turns one and three and on the long run down to turn four saw riders from the second group, including wildcard Ing Asavamund join the leaders. Tellingly, Fordyce, who was showing exceptional speed through the third sector, led across the line three times before the crucial last lap.
It was the 16-year-old Kiwi who led a pack of eight separated by 1.2 seconds onto lap 12. As the leaders swapped positions, he made it count from turn 7, getting a good run that put him just ahead as the pack braked for Chang International’s infamous final turn. Under pressure from Teeranai and Tanakit, he got a good drive out to win by eight hundredths of a second from the two Thais. Just behind, there was a tangle in the traffic, which saw Larkin go down. Somehow the others got through intact, with Sakchai and Ing finishing fourth and fifth. Two seconds further back, Kakeru, recovering from a nasty pelvis injury sustained in Round 2, was sixth, just ahead of Theppitak.
The win for Fordyce, together with Kakeru finishing down the order and Larkin’s crash, make the championship wide open ahead of Saturday’s Race 2 and the halfway point in the six-round season.
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