After claiming the overall win in the Underbone 150 (UB150) category of last year’s Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC), the UMA Racing Yamaha Philippines Team has set higher goals coming into the 2020 season. Now that the series has kicked off for the year, let’s see how the team and its racers fared in the first round.
Masato Fernando leads the outfit in the UB150 category, with newbie Kerwin Chang as his teammate. The two faced tough challenges in both races of the season opener.
Race 1 saw Fernando finishing strong against aggressive foes, claiming ninth place in the 27-racer grid to score seven points. Chang started 24th and finished four places up after six laps.
McKinley Kyle Paz now competes in the Supersports 600 (SS600) category of the ARRC, having won the UB150 title last year. In his debut race, ‘The Wonder Boy’ finished eighth in the 16-racer grid to score eight points.
Race 2 was off to a rocky start for the UB150 riders when Fernando had a mishap with another competitor, causing him to retire. The Philippine spirit remained unwavering, however, as John Emerson Inguito of the 4S1M Yamaha Racing Team claimed fifth spot and 11 points, while Chang finished 18th.
Meanwhile, Paz became more in tune with himself and his YZF-R6 in Race 2 of the SS600 class. Despite the fierce competition and a few small incidents that led to a red flag, the 18-year-old more than held his own and finished in seventh place, claiming an additional nine points.
The top finishers in UB150’s Race 1 were Wahyu Aji Trilaksana of Indonesia in first place, Ahmad Fazrul Sham of Malaysia in second, and Peerapong Luiboonpeng of Thailand in third. Malaysians dominated Race 2, with Ahmad Fazli Sham in first place, Md Izzat Zaidi in second, and Ahmad Fazrul Sham in third.
It’s also worth mentioning that all the top three finishers in the two races were using a Yamaha Y15 ZR.
Round one of the ARRC is done and dusted, but Yamaha’s Filipino racers are just getting started. These young riders are more driven than ever to finish on the podium after last year’s win. Next on the team’s agenda is the second round at The Bend Motorsport Park in Australia in May.
