Race report

Asia Road Racing Championship Suzuka

Japan ARRC: Honda's Sethu overcomes fogged visor to score points

Factory Honda India rider Rajiv Sethu overcame a fogged visor to score points in a wet Asia Road Racing Championship race in Japan.

Rachit Thukral

Edited: Oct 24, 2019, 5:49 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Rajiv Sethu, Honda Racing India

Competing in the Asia Production 250cc category at the iconic Suzuka Circuit, Sethu mastered the tricky conditions to jump from 13th to seventh on the opening lap.

For the early part of the race, he held to that position, just three seconds behind the race leader at that time.

However, as the race wore on his visor started fogging up, severely limited visibility and forcing him to turn down the wick to avoid a nasty crash.

This meant that he quickly started falling down the order, and by the halfway point of the race he had dropped outside the points.

But Sethu didn’t give up just yet and slowly starting clawing his way back up the field, moving up to 15th by the penultimate lap.

On the final tour, Sethu sensed an opportunity to sneak 14th place, successfully making the manoeuvre to gain two crucial championship points.

“A great start pushed me to 7th but second lap onwards it was very difficult to ride due to visor fog,” Sethu said.

“I couldn’t see corners and water patches ahead and started dropping positions. I decided to open my visor in lap 3 but the water back-splash of riders before me held me back.

“By lap 5, rain stopped for a bit and I pushed hard with rider bunch. Taking the slipstream advantage, I made a move in the last corner of race and finished 14th.”

Senthil Kumar, Honda Racing India

Photo by: Honda

ARRC rookie Senthil Kumar naturally struggled in wet conditions on a track he is still fairly new to, but did well to finish inside the top 20.

Senthil, a graduate of Honda India Talent Hunt and Thai Cup, is still searching for his first points since the season opener in Malaysia.

“Today’s race was the toughest race for me till now,” he said. “Not only is Suzuka a tough technical track in itself but the rain and wind made it really hard to push.

“It’s the first time that I rode in this condition. The first three laps I was blinded by fog in today’s rain. I was opening the visor in every straight and cleaning it to avoid crash.

“It was only by the 4th lap that I started to make gains and finished 20th. Next up Zhuhai is not only a new track for me but all riders. Hopefully I will learn fast and do better there.”

Speaking at the end of a weekend in which Sethu scored points in both races for the Honda Racing India team, Prabhu Nagaraj, Vice President – Brand & Communications, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India said: “Suzuka has been a satisfying round. Today both our riders were able to complete the race despite as many as 9 rider crashes.

“Rajiv maintained his pace and consistency in top 15 despite heavy rains and fogging. Next round, he should bounce back stronger.

“For Senthil, today was his first complete wet race and he finished 20th. The progress is good and the team will further strengthen both Rajiv and Senthil’s race-craft and track riding once back in Chennai.”

The ARRC field next heads to Zhuhai Circuit in China next month, representing a new challenge for all riders in the multi-class series.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Austin Dillon tops Kevin Harvick for Chicagoland Cup pole

Next article Nicolo Rocca scores dramatic win after Hezemans engine trouble

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Winners and losers from F1's chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

6 min

Winners and losers from F1's chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix

How Lando Norris prevailed in a swift errors tour of Interlagos

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

How Lando Norris prevailed in a swift errors tour of Interlagos

Robert Kubica announces exit from AF Corse’s privateer Hypercar in WEC

WEC

WEC WEC

Monza

46 min

Robert Kubica announces exit from AF Corse’s privateer Hypercar in WEC

Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

1 h

Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts