Emmanuel Clarke, ex-TVS racing rider, who is racing this season in Malaysian Super Series racing Kawasaki Cup will be maintaining a race diary here and you can read his reports from now onwards.

Practice:

Emmanuel Clarke headed into the practice session with a lot of hope this time around, as Mr.Barry Leong (former racer) was on track with him for this round to help with the bike's set up and to learn race lines. Clarke missed his services in Round 1 and 2 due to his prior commitments with the F.I.M and Cubprix Races. He was able to find a good setup and set a personal best timing of 1.22.808.

Emmanuel Clarke with his Kawasaki Cup bike in Malaysian Super Series

Qualifying:

Going out to qualifying with a couple of corrections from Barry Leong, Clarke managed to do a consistent set of laps and was able to change his style of riding to suit the bike. As Clarke is 6ft tall, any lean on eitherside and his knees would touch down on the tarmac. He set a respectable time of 1.22.289 to qualify 8th on the second row of the grid and moving up from the thrid row which was his best starting position from the earlier two rounds.

Race Results:

Race 1:
"Got a flier of a start and headed into turn one in 5th position and held that place for a coupe of laps till a mistake
at the last corner saw me run wide and drop down to 10th but nevertheless consistent lap times helped me to finish in 7th place for race 1 with a lap time of 1.22.040, a further improvement from qualifying."

The results of race 1 deteremined how the riders lined up for Race 2 which was held the next day, Sunday, as the cars were being run concurrently for this round.

Race 2:
"Got a real mouth full from mr.barry for making that mistake and running off the track when in 5th place, because that showed we had the pace to run with the guys in 5th-7th place. Trust me the lap times are very close! So, if you can see these guys in front of you its a bonus. Anyways another great start and was in 6th place and held that place for 4 laps when a small mistake allowed the 2 guys behind me to move up. It was a challenge because the guys in front were factory supported Kawasaki guys and I was determined to get my place back. We traded places for a couple of laps and then on the lap 9 I passed one guy into the uphill C4 and on lap 10 passed the other guy in C3 and held him off for the remaining few corners to finish 7th. My best lap this time around being 1.21.427! Happy that I am getting closer to the top bunch. I am currently tied for 6th position in the championship."

Emmanuel Clarke and Abdul fight for position

The top bunch is made up of #28 Ahmed Azhar Hamid - Cubprix and Fim underbone champion, #27 Ahmed Nashrul Baharudin - reigning production class MSS champion , #56 Mhd Fairuz Abd Murad - the runner up in the Kawasaki cup for the last 3 years and #05 R.Suresh - who's been racing before the sepang track was built even!!!

Clarke was a bit handicapped this year because the regulations were changed before the start of this year from 'Stock' to 'Open modifications' and he is still trying to get the trick parts like the Racing CDI, Close Ratio Gearbox and better carbs. He is however confident to get them soon. Adding to these changes have made this a 7 round championship from the ealier 5 rounds. The two extra rounds will be support races for the F.I.M races at Sepang and Johor Baru.

"I would like to thank my sponsors Pagalam Trawells, Dollar Apparels, Jennys Residency who have placed immense faith in sponsoring me and I still need to find sponorship for the remaining 4 rounds."

Clarke is still waiting for the trick parts, hope he gets them soon!

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