2016 ARRC: Sarath's Suzuka outing truncated due to injury
Injury forces Sarath out of Suzuka Round of the 2016 ARRC
Let's quickly get you up to speed. Sarath Kumar missed the first round of the 2016 Asia Road Racing Championship because he didn't yet have a contract for the season. The second round, at the Buriram Circuit in Thailand, didn't go too well for the Indian rider, as a knee injury that he sustained during pre-season testing flared up and resulted in him being medically unfit to race.
Now, at the third round of the championship in Suzuka, where Sarath is riding for Team T Pro Yuzy Honda NTS, supported by WOW Digit and Ten10 Racing, he once again faced issues. Despite the fact that Sarath managed to complete the practice sessions, even though he was in considerable amount of pain, and also qualified for the race, his knee injury was so troublesome that he was only able to finish the truncated race last.
After the race Sarath had to be helped off the motorcycle and was forced to sit out the second race of the weekend. However, with a seven week gap to the fourth round of the championship, he is confident that he will have recovered in time.
Ten10 Racing's Managing Director Ramji Govindarajan said: "Sarath qualified for Race 1 despite a lot of pain. The race was red flagged halfway through and turned out to be a five-lap shootout which worked to his advantage as he managed to complete his first race in ARRC SS600.
"The team T Pro Yuzy Honda NTS with WOW helped him to get on the grid and encouraged him a lot. Sarath had to fight lot of pain and had to be helped to get off the bike at the end of Race 1. Given the situation, our target was for him to qualify and take part in the races. To this end, we are quite happy, and hopefully, he will recover fully for the next round in Indonesia in August."
