Boon Siew Honda Sdn Bhd and Idemitsu Lubricants Malaysia will once again be working together to train the third generation of world class Malaysian riders. As part of their developmental plan, the two companies have come together to place a new team entry, Idemitsu Boon Siew Honda Racing, in the Asia Production 250cc class of the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship.
The team’s full season debut is scheduled for the 2020 season. However, with the sixth leg of the 2019 season being held at the Sepang International Circuit, the team had decided to take advantage of the homeground advantage to gain an early gauge of the level of competition that they will be facing.
“The Asia Production 250cc class was added to the Asia Road Racing Championship roster in 2015. To date, the class had been dominated by Thai and Indonesian riders. However, we know that, given the calibre of Malaysian riders, they should be challenging for the title in every single season. After all, the Malaysian riders are dominant in every other category of the ARRC (ASB1000, SuperSports 600cc, and Underbone 150cc), except the 250cc class. By establishing our own factory outfit in the class, we take on the mission of changing the balance of power in this popular category,” said Mr. Keiichi Yasuda, MD and CEO of Boon Siew Honda Sdn Bhd.
For the purpose of this wildcard entry, Team Idemitsu Boon Siew Honda Racing will be fielding two upcoming young Malaysian riders – Muhammad Syarifuddin Azman and Muhammad Idlan Haqimi Raduan. The riders will be competing astride the Honda CBR250RR.
“I am both excited and nervous about this wildcard. The AP250 class is not an easy class to debut in. There are a lot of strong and aggressive riders on the grid,” said the 18-year-old Syarifuddin who stole the limelight as the Yamaha PETRONAS Super Series champion in 2016 and most recently won the 2018 Wira title with team Idemitsu Kozi Yam Honda Racing.
Likewise, 15-year-old Muhammad Idlan Haqimi Raduan was the 2018 Honda One Make Challenge champion. Both riders had been placed on Honda’s accelerated talent development path that had succeeded in creating world-class Malaysian riders like Mohd Zaqhwan Zaidi, Khairul Idham Pawi, and Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman.
Boon Siew Honda also previewed the road going Honda CBR250RR. Making its first appearance to the public and local media’s eyes. Launch back in 2017 in Indonesian market and recently in March 2019 in Thailand, we hope to see the CBR250RR on Malaysian roads, but with strict JPJ homologation, we may not see the production model in Malaysia in the near future. But we are still hopeful in the near future, and another reason is the CBR250RR may also cost over RM30,000. Honda has a ‘no comment’ on when CBR250RR will launch in Malaysia. So, fans of this quarter-litre like us will have to wait for this CBR250RR a little longer.
Catch us at:
Facebook: @i.moto.my
IG: @i.moto
Website: www.i-moto.my