After Quatar, Indonesia is the next destination of MotoGP 2022 and IATC 2022 with Madalika Race Track being the “epicenter”. Madalika is the largest race track in Southeast Asia, recently inaugurated, and is expected to surpass Sepang and Chang to become the representative race track of the region.
Madalika has 17 turns and is over 4.3km long, covering an area of over 120 hectares. It aims to replace Sentul and help Indonesia regain its glory on the world racing map as the “elder brother” in Southeast Asian motorsports. The race track has extremely difficult challenges with long straight stretches and sharp turns.
The MotoGP and IATC events took place at Madalika last Sunday, attracting the attention of not only racing enthusiasts but also all the people of the archipelago. Prior to that, the President of Indonesia, Mr. Joko Widodo, rode a motorcycle to the race track to meet and interact with the racers participating in Round 2 of IATC 2022 and MotoGP 2022. This shows how grand the event is and reflects the pressure that the racers, especially the young racers competing in IATC, have to face.
The only representative from Vietnam participating in IATC 2022 is racer Nguyen Nguyen Tran Duc Tai, who had his debut at Madalika starting from the 17th position out of 21, improving 2 places compared to the first round in Qatar.
The only representative from Vietnam participating in IATC 2022 is racer Nguyen Nguyen Tran Duc Tai, who had his debut at Madalika starting from the 17th position out of 21, improving 2 places compared to the first round in Qatar. This is a significant progress for the young racer. Especially, the qualifying round took place in rainy conditions with wet roads.
With the notable performance in the qualifying round, Duc Tai is expected to make a stronger impression in the 2 official racing days. However, this young racer has already experienced the harshness of the top racing arena, especially the young racers competing in IATC.
Young racer and technician Nguyen Van Tan of Honda Racing Vietnam.
Race 1: Head up, tail up
Nguyen Duc Tai began Race 1 with a not-so-good start, allowing 3 consecutive racers to overtake and leaving him at the last position. However, very quickly, the Vietnamese young racer remained calm and regained his racing spirit. Starting from the 2nd lap, Nguyen Tran Duc Tai, along with two racers from the host countries Indonesia and India, Kavin Quintal and Zachry Akbar, created an intense three-way race to avoid the “last place” position.
Duc Tai has made progress compared to the first round.
The fierce competition took place over 9 laps, from the 2nd lap to the 10th lap. However, the representative from Vietnam could only overtake in the 3rd remaining lap and always stayed in a chasing position with the 2 direct opponents. In particular, Nguyen Tran Duc Tai and Kavin had moments of exchanging overtaking moves throughout the race.
However, in the 10th lap, Nguyen Tran Duc Tai fell and was eliminated from Race 1 with regret when he was in the 17th position out of 21, still exerting pressure on Kavin and Zachry. Although having to leave the race early, Duc Tai’s direct competition and ability to “keep up” instead of being left behind were already a great success for this racer. Especially when his 2 opponents were racers from the host country, receiving great support from the stands.
Race 2: Falling before the finish line
Entering Race 2, Duc Tai made a bold adjustment in the start maneuver, starting diagonally to take advantage of the direct confrontation with the upper racers. However, this calculation was not successful, and Duc Tai was left behind immediately after the first turn.
Duc Tai and the team have 6 months to train before the 3rd round of the IATC in Japan in September 2022.
On the second racing day, despite experiencing an incomplete first racing day, Duc Tai did not let his mentality affected and continued to strive with great determination. Although being overtaken by Zachry Akbar in the second lap, pushing the racer to the last position of the race, Duc Tai did not give up. Specifically, in the 14th lap, taking advantage of the mistakes made by Kavin Quintal and Zachry Akbar, Duc Tai made a clever move to overtake both opponents and return to the 17th position. However, immediately after that, he was overtaken by both racers and fell to the 19th position. The racer could not complete the race as he fell just before the final turn of the race.
After the first 2 rounds, it can be seen that if Duc Tai can improve his start, along with a determined racing spirit and further skill development, getting points in the next race is completely within the reach of this racer. There will be 6 months of training before the 3rd round of the IATC takes place in Japan in September 2022.
The 2nd round of the IATC 2022 concluded with the absolute domination of racer Hakim Danish from Malaysia, being on the podium in both racing days. As for the representative from Vietnam, Nguyen Nguyen Tran Duc Tai currently has 4 points and is ranked 19th out of 21 on the IATC 2022 standings.
Moreover, within the framework of the recent race day, in Moto2 format, racer Somkiat Chantra, the ATC 2016 champion, won the first place in the round, thus becoming the first Thai racer in history to achieve a podium finish at MotoGP. Hopefully, in the near future, Vietnam will also have a racer who can achieve the first podium at IATC and MotoGP.
Anh Quan (forum.autodaily.vn)
