Perfect Pratama doubles up on home soil

For the second weekend in a row Indonesia’s Veda Pratama is a double race winner in the Idemitsu Asia Talent Cup as he backed up his Saturday success with a dominant Sunday display, beating Zen Mitani and Amon Odaki by 5.9s as the fight for the podium went right to the chequered flag.

As he did in Race 1, Pratama got the perfect launch from pole position but unlike on Saturday, Odaki wasn’t able to ruffle the #7’s feathers early doors. Pratama immediately pulled the pin and once Odaki had made a mistake at Turn 16 in the opening exchanges, the race for victory was between Pratama and no one else.

The podium fight came down to three riders – Mitani, Odaki and Ryota Ogiwara. Three Japanese riders fighting for two spots on the podium.

The P2 baton was changing lap by lap and as Pratama came home to claim a dream home double, Mitani won the race to the line by 0.017s – getting the better of Odaki in the final sector. Ogiwara was less than half a tenth away from the podium in P4 to rebound well after a crash in Race 1.

Shinya Ezawa had a tricky race but managed to rescue P5 in what was another brilliant ATC battle for the top six. Jakkreephat Phuettisan grabbed P6 ahead of Farish Hafiy and Riichi Takahira, with ninth place Marianos Nikolis also in that fight. Farres Putra completed the top 10, the Malaysian was only a couple of seconds shy of P5.

Perfection from Pratama in Indonesia. Can anyone catch him? We’ll find out in Thailand!