- Rajiv Sethu closes 2019 season in 17th position overall with two Top-10 and nine Top-15 finishes
- Senthil Kumar completes maiden championship in 30th position out of the 44 riders
- Five-position penalty in finale race resulted in no points despite the double Top 15 finish
After completing Round 6 of the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship 2019 at Sepang International Circuit, the championship progressed to Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand, for the Round 7 finale. After a fair share of ups and down the IDEMITSU Honda Racing India team managed to complete the ARRC 2019 season in ninth position overall amongst the 20 teams.
Starting with the three practice sessions, the IDEMITSU Honda Racing India team riders Rajiv Sethu and Senthil Kumar managed to clock some fast lap timings despite the heavy competition from the seasoned Asian riders. While Rajiv clocked his fastest ever free practice session lap time of 1:55:084, his teammate, Senthil clocked an impressive lap time of 1:56:942.
Race 1 of the weekend was a mixed bag of results for the IDEMITSU Honda Racing India team. Despite starting the race out of the Top 15 bunch, Rajiv pushed hard through the 10 lap race with secured him the 14th position on waving the chequered flag. Sethu managed to add two points to the team’s kitty in Race 1. His best lap time for the Race 1 stood at 1:54:539.
Senthil Kumar, the IDEMITSU Honda Racing India team’s second rider managed to put up a great show. Senthil has started the race in 22nd position, but due to a poor start, his position dropped down to 27 on the grid. However, not wanting to give up, he rode aggressively and gained nine positions thus gaining the 18th spot. Unfortunately, while making his move on two more riders, Senthil suffered a low-side right at the end of the first lap which put him out of the race.
Day 2 of the race weekend was the final race of the season which saw the team giving its best shot which earned a double Top-15 finish for both riders. However, due to the FIM 5 position penalty on exceeding track limits on turn 12 of final 10th lap resulted in misfortune for five riders. Even though Md. Muzakkir crossed the chequered flag first, he was pushed back to the sixth position and Lucky Hendiransya from Astra’s Honda who finished in seventh had to settle down for 12th position. In the same manner, Senthil and Rajiv also lost five positions from their 11th and 13th race finish. After the penalty, the two rider’s final race position stood at 16th and 18th, respectively. Despite a Top 15 finish, the team received no points to be added to the kitty.
