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Wednesday September 9, 2009

Affendi on course to break Indonesian stranglehold on Underbone 115cc

By ERIC SAMUEL

CHENNAI: Malaysian Mohd Affendi Rosli is in sight of breaking a five-year Indonesian stranglehold in the Underbone 115cc championships of the Petronas FIM Asian Grand Prix.

The 24-year-old Suzuki Harian Metro SCK Racing rider has overtaken Fitriansyah Kete and Hadiwijaya in the championship standings after chalking up two podium finishes in the fourth round at the Madras circuit here on Sunday.

He won Race 1 and finished second in Race 2. With two rounds remaining in Zhuhai, Affendi has 99 points and he holds an 11-point advantage over Petronas Sprinta Raceline’s Mohd Iskandar Raduan.

Fitriansyah is in third place on 78 points and two other Indonesians, Denny Triyugo and Hadiwijaya, are in fifth and sixth spots on 70 and 61 points respectively.

Another Petronas Sprinta Raceline rider, Hafizh Syahrin Abdullah, is in fourth place on 72 points.

“My mission is not over yet. I will see that we break the supremacy of the Indonesian riders in the Underbone 115cc class, which they held since 2004,” said Affendi, who stormed back in the round in India after failing to finish the two races in the previous outing in Indonesia last month.

“And for that to happen, I have to maintain my form in the remaining two rounds in China.”

The Indonesian winners in the last five seasons were M. Fadli (2004), Doni Tata Praditya (2005), Feizy Juniardit (2006), Wahyu Widodo (2007) and Owie Nurhuda (2008).

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