Pawi and Toba complete their debut WorldSSP race weekend at Phillip Island
The 2024 WorldSSP season-opener draws to an end at Phillip Island in Australia, with PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders Toba and Pawi finishing a delayed race 2 in twenty-first and twenty-third place respectively.
Sunday’s Supersport race eventually got underway almost two hours later than scheduled after a rider in the Australian SBK race left oil on the track. Due to scheduling constraints, the race was reduced to a distance of just nine laps, with no need for a pitstop. Keen to build on their race 1 performance and undeterred by the delayed start, riders Kaito Toba and Khairul Idham Pawi lined up in twenty-second and twenty-fifth position on the grid, just as they did yesterday. While Pawi maintained his starting position through the opening turns, Toba was able to make up two positions to place twentieth by the end of lap one. The Japanese rider lost a little ground later on, crossing the line in twenty-first place. His Malaysian team-mate gained two places during the second half of this shortened race to cross the line twenty-third.
At the end of this opening championship round, Pawi lies twentieth in the championship standings having scored 1 point in Saturday’s race, while Toba is yet to get on the scoreboard. The next round of the Supersport World Championship is scheduled to take place over the weekend of 22-24 March at the Barcelona-Catalunya track.
Khairul Idham Pawi
“Today I had some difficulties with the front of the bike. We improved a little in terms of the rear suspension I think but unfortunately suffered problems with the front instead. It’s only round one though and we have worked hard over the course of the weekend, learning and collecting a lot of data. We will of course continue in this way as we prepare for round 2 in Barcelona.”
Kaito Toba
“It was a difficult race weekend to be honest. We definitely improved during race 1 and race 2 but did not progress enough to be able to fight for the points zone. We have closed the gap slightly with respect to those ahead, and that’s positive, and we now have a better idea as to our level too. I’m confident that we will be able to improve over the next few races and be in a position to fight for the top ten. We just have to keep working.”
