Suzuki factory test rider Nobuatsu Aoki hosted a two-day Training School at the Kenjalang circuit in Indonesia this week.
The former GP rider was invited by Suzuki Motor Indonesia to share his knowledge and skills with Suzuki’s top Indonesian Indoprix Championship riders and help motivate other Suzuki series contenders at the technical, twisting circuit at Surabaya city.
In Indonesia – which has annual motorcycle sales of more than 8 million and is the third-largest market globally behind China and India – the most-popular racing class is Indoprix, which Suzuki hotly-contests with its popular FW 110cc Suzuki Titan in both the 110cc and 125cc classes; the latter class featuring modified and bored-out, but modified, off-the-shelf machinery.
Suzuki’s dedicated Race Department, Suzuki Indomobil Motor, will field two teams in the upcoming 2012 Indoprix Championship; Suzuki AHRS Racing Team and Suzuki Chia Felix Racing Team; two riders – Andi Farhat and Ahmed Kohar – being present at the Training School.
Aoki, who spent a lot time knee-scraping the teams’ Titan machinery over the two days, left the test impressed. He said: “My biggest message was to change the riders’ mindset and encourage everyone at the School to aim at a higher level, try a new challenge; and I do believe everyone understood this, put it into practice; and hopefully learned a lot from it.
“The riding level and performance in Indonesia is very high and if our riders put in their best effort in the 2012 Indoprix Championship, they will deliver good results for Suzuki. I’m looking forward to meeting them again in Indonesia.”
Team Suzuki Chia Felix rider Ahmad Kohar said: “I can feel the significant change in my lap times and riding style and especially some all-new suspension settings that we worked on together. I was able to find answers to many questions talking to Nobuatsu Aoki as well as the Japanese technical staff, even though two days wasn’t enough; we want Nobu to come back and spend more time!”
Suzuki Chia Felix team-mate Andi Farhat added: “I was very surprised at the new machine-settings we found by working with Nobu and the Japanese technicians and our riding stle and lap-times improved over the two days. I want him to hold this Riding School again as it was very good for everyone.”
Team Suzuki Racing will be previewing the 2012 Indoprix Championship that gets underway in Jakarta on March 11th in more detail, plus an insight into its teams and machinery in the next few weeks.
