Asia Road Racing Championship 2023 Round 6: A Craving for Triumph

Back to Chao Hua Chang – fulfilling the tradition of the ARRC Asian Motorcycle Racing Championship, the season opener can take place anywhere. However, the final stage before the end of each season will always be held in Thailand. And for a long time, the Chang International Circuit has always been the place where fans create a very vibrant atmosphere – the unique essence of the speed fire.

The Chang racetrack is located in the center of Buriram province – Eastern Thailand – about 400km from Suvarnabhumi Airport in the capital Bangkok, a 5-hour drive by car.

The Chang International Circuit is 4.554 km long, consisting of 12 turns with 5 left turns and 7 right turns. The racetrack of the land of the Golden Pagoda meets the Grade 1 standards of the FIA ??and Grade A of the FIM International Motorcycle Federation.

Surely domestic fans can hardly forget the brilliant achievements of “crazy guy” Cao Viet Nam, when rider #65 won the 2019 Thailand Talent Cup championship.

Returning to the Chang International Circuit this time, all four riders of the Honda Racing Vietnam Team are determined to compete for a chance to step onto the Podium – it seemed like it was very close in previous races but still had not touched it yet.

This determination was realized through extraordinary efforts in practice sessions. Specifically, in Practice 2 (free practice 2 run) Cao Viet Nam was extremely impressive when he achieved a second-place time result compared to all the remaining competitors.

In the qualifying session, when Cao Viet Nam started in the position of 9/23 – in the top 10; Nguyen Duc Thanh will start in the position of 17/23.

In addition, in the UB150, “veteran” Nguyen Anh Tuan #178 made great efforts to achieve the starting position of 13/24 – in the upper half of the race, quite convenient.

Nguyen Huu Tri, Nguyen Anh Tuan’s young disciple, also proved not inferior when he obtained the qualification to start in 16/24.

First day of competition

On Saturday before Race 1, the weather at the Chang furnace was very favorable for competition. In particular, the intense atmosphere created by the fans here is always the characteristic of the land of mangoes.

Entering the final stage of the ARRC 2023 season, the Honda Racing Vietnam Team ranked 8th out of 11 in the AP250 category with 68 points. The UB150 category also recorded Vietnamese racers with 18 provisional points before setting foot in Thailand.

AP250 format: Bursting with determination

With promising training and qualification results, the pair of #65 Cao Viet Nam and #193 Nguyen Duc Thanh entered the official race day with great enthusiasm and full of energy.

In an interview just before starting, “crazy guy” Cao Viet Nam said he was fully focused on the goal of winning a position on the Podium. He was also very confident, thanks to the highly effective technical support team, to improve performance through each race.

Unlike the previous race in China, the racing strategy of #65 Cao Viet Nam has changed. He actively competed for the position from the moment the signal light went out. A powerful start allowed The Mad to take 4th place and maintain a distance of only 0.5 seconds from the leader.

In the last turn, before entering the 3rd lap; #65 Cao Viet Nam had a beautiful overtaking in the turn and surpassed #44 Muklada Sarapuech, officially joining the top 3 leading riders. At this point, the distance between “crazy guy” and the leader had shortened to only 0.4 seconds. However, after that, the Thai rider #44 took back the advantage to lead.

The fourth lap witnessed a very thrilling situation when #65 Cao Viet Nam impressively took the 2nd position, running right behind the leading rider #54 Veda Ega. But right after that, the order changed among the leading riders and #65 Cao Viet Nam temporarily dropped to 5th place.

The fifth lap, Cao Viet Nam again entered the top 3 and then jumped to the 2nd place, continuing to make the audience hold their breaths. Meanwhile, below, #193 Nguyen Duc Thanh also quickly climbed to run 16th/23.

The position continually changed when #65 Cao Viet Nam temporarily dropped to 4th place and kept attacking to rise to the 2nd place in the 7th lap. In the 8th lap, #65 Cao Viet Nam again dropped to 5th place before reversing to rise again to the 2nd place and enter the final lap.

First place seemed quite far away when the distance to the first rider widened to over 4 seconds, but a position on the Podium was now very close – when Cao Viet Nam was temporarily ranked the second.

Tension was pushed to climax when #65 Cao Viet Nam was pushed to 5th place just a few hundred meters before the finish line. A fierce and somewhat excessive competition between #46 Herjun Atna and “crazy guy” pushed him out to the edge of the off-track area. And like that, The Mad had no more opportunities to compete.

This was also the final notable development before #65 Cao Viet Nam finished in 5th place, 6.3 seconds away from the winner. His teammate #193 Nguyen Duc Thanh also finished at 15th/23 – 28 seconds after the winner, ending the first day of competition with determination.

UB150 format: Cautious competition

Learning from the race stage 4 in Indonesia, when our UB150 pair faced intense competition and had to stop before reaching the finish line; both Anh Tuan and Huu Tri started cautiously right from the first lap.

Doing this has saved our two riders from the fate of #11 – Ahmad Fazrul Sham; or the two Malaysian teammates – who were running 3rd and 4th – did not understand each other and collided directly in the turn, causing #50 Ahmad Afif Amran to stop the race early.

Intense competition takes place thrillingly when the entire racers form a united whole. No racer is strong enough to break away and leave other opponents behind. A close running formation like this also brings many risks of collision and requires racers to have excellent situational handling skills.

Relying on his rich racing experience, #178 Nguyen Anh Tuan well understood that this was not a good time to compete. He ran slowly to seize the opportunity. And what had to come eventually came: in the third lap, the two riders #78 and #32 collided in the turn, both fell and with a heavy heart handed the position over to our #178.

Continuous collisions in the first 4 laps also made racers have to “cool down” and keep a safer distance. However, the racers still stuck together; no racer raced to break ahead of the pack.

Ending the first day of competition, #178 Nguyen Anh Tuan finished at 18th/24. Meanwhile, his younger teammate – #111 Nguyen Huu Tri – finished at 19th/24 after completing 6 laps. All were waiting for the opportunity on the final race day of the ARRC 2023 season.

And though there was still one more racing day, the overall result had fallen on the AP250 category, when Nguyen Anh Tuan finished 8th out of 41 competitors with a total of 87 points. Meanwhile, his teammate – #193 Nguyen Duc Thanh- obtained only 6 points and ranked 28th/41 overall. The championship of the AP250 category this season belonged to Indonesian rider #123 Rheza Danica Ahrens.

This result helped Honda Racing Vietnam Team rise to the 7th position of the overall standings on the ARRC 2023 season board, with a total of 93 points. And importantly, our racers had repeatedly competed for the top position, regularly appearing at the top of the leaderboard to compete with top regional seeds.

Consequently, the ARRC 2023 season had officially ended. A year of fluctuating and also remarkable racing for each racer. The image of Cao Viet Nam on the number 65 motorcycle running steadily in first place for many consecutive laps will be a memory cherished by the fans. This too was a resolute affirmation that the Honda Racing Vietnam Team had full grounds to compete fairly with the leading regional racers and achieve the best results. Let’s look forward to the ARRC 2024 season and hope for proud results or a position on the glorious Podium for the golden star warriors to come soon.

Anh Phan (Tuoitrethudo)

Photos: Minh Dai