Racer Report: Karthik finishes in 6th place in MSS Round 2

Karthik has been maintaining a race diary for this season of MSS racing and you can read the report from Round 1 of the Production Bikes Cup of MSS 2008 here .

Practice:

Though it is the 2nd round of Production Bikes Cup in the Malaysian Super Series for Karthik, he was not able to match the good setup which he had in the first round of the championship.

Qualifying:

Due to the same setup issues, qualifying did not work out very well and the best time Karthik posted was a 1.25'298 which was over 5 seconds down on the pole position. He was pushed down to 13th place on the grid. After the qualifying session, Sivanesan (Karthik's team tuner) really worked hard for setting up the bike, for which he was really grateful.

Raceday in Karthik's words:

"On the race day I was very confident, more than what I was for the first round due to the changes in the setup the night before" Karthik says.

Karthik on the track in MSS qualifying

Race 1:
When the race started, I really pushed hard to fight with the top riders bunch but got stuck up with the other riders down the order. So, I had to compete with this bunch and because of that, the top three riders flew away and put a gap on the rest. I really pushed hard in the the last three laps to get a 6th place finish in the 1st race.

Pos	No.	Name	Class	Laps	Total Time	Diff	Best Time	In Lap
1	11	Ahmad Azhar	Production Bikes	10	13:24.193		1:19.329	5
2	4	Ahmad Nashrul	Production Bikes	10	13:33.113	+8.920	1:20.312	3
3	17	Mohd Kanafi Kamarudin	Production Bikes	10	13:34.360	+10.167	1:19.845	8
4	28	Mohd Rhamzy Rahim	Production Bikes	10	13:34.705	+10.512	1:20.194	8
5	19	R Karigalan	Production Bikes	10	13:45.631	+21.438	1:20.847	3
6	82	P. Karthik	Production Bikes	10	14:08.256	+44.063	1:23.493	9
7	66	Muhammad Imran Zulkafli	Production Bikes	10	14:08.472	+44.279	1:22.491	9
8	86	Azman Kusban	Production Bikes	10	14:08.655	+44.462	1:22.671	10
9	16	Mazlan Mustapa Ayob	Production Bikes	10	14:18.119	+53.926	1:23.465	4
10	48	Mohd Rizal Jantan	Production Bikes	10	14:20.782	+56.589	1:21.905	3
12	13	Harry Sylvester	Production Bikes	9	13:33.430	1 Lap	1:28.639	7

Malaysian Super Series round 2 race report and images

Race 2:
I started my my 2nd race from the 6th grid due to my finishing position in the first race. I did not get a good start and most of the other riders passed me. There were almost 20 riders ahead of me entering into the 1st corner and I was very confused seeing that huge bunch! Due to the bad start, I again missed the chance to catch the top bunch. I did not leave my hope and pushed very hard to catch the other riders so that they would not run far away from me. I was doing a better lap timing and was more consistent in all the laps, so that I was atleast able to finish the same 6th place in the 2nd race also.

Karthik and R Suresh Malaysian Super Series MSS

Karthik and R Suresh fight for position in the second race

Pos	No.	Name	Class	Laps	Total Time	Diff	Best Time	In Lap
1	11	Ahmad Azhar	Production Bikes	10	13:26.455		1:19.678	8
2	48	Mohd Rizal Jantan	Production Bikes	10	13:28.121	+1.666	1:19.721	5
3	4	Ahmad Nashrul	Production Bikes	10	13:42.165	+15.710	1:21.153	5
4	19	R Karigalan	Production Bikes	10	13:42.165	+15.710	1:21.153	5
5	28	Mohd Rhamzy Rahim	Production Bikes	10	13:48.258	+21.803	1:20.721	2
6	82	P. Karthik	Production Bikes	10	13:59.917	+33.462	1:22.608	7
7	05	R. Suresh	Production Bikes	10	14:00.050	+33.595	1:22.174	3
8	39	Subhan B. Human	Production Bikes	10	14:05.501	+39.046	1:22.719	7
9	66	Muhammad Imran Zulkafli	Production Bikes	10	14:05.531	+39.076	1:23.021	6
10	86	Azman Kusban	Production Bikes	10	14:13.194	+46.739	1:23.968	10
17	13	Harry Sylvester	Production Bikes	9	13:41.611	+9.636	1:29.511	8

MSS Production Bikes Cup Round 2 Podium

Due to the 6th place finishes in both the races, I finished the weekend in 6th place overall for the round 2. I should really thank Perot systems IBPS Chennai and TVS motor company for supporting me.

Round 3 of the Malaysian Super Series is to be held on June 15th.