Just how often could an ordinary rider like you and me, ride in a proper track? Better yet, how often could we ride along with a reigning Moto2 World Champion? Could it be one in ten million?
My dream of riding alongside with the champions came true. Well, almost. Prior to MotoGP Malaysian Round last week, my riding buddies and I were fortunate enough to be able to do exactly that! Of course, we were not the only fortunate ones. Several people from the medias, dealers and customers were exclusively invited by Winmaster Sdn Bhd, the distributor for Shark Helmets and Furygan in Malaysia to challenge the reigning Moto2 World Champion, Johann Zarco and one of the top contenders in Moto2, Sam Lowes.
That sounds perfect isn’t it? However, it was not on the 600cc Moto2 riding machines, but more of the MiniGP bikes. The event was held at the Elite Plus Speedway Circuit. Prior to the challenge, we were given the chance to have a warm-up and a little practice just to make sure we could at least be half a lap or so behind reigning champion Zarco and top contender Lowes.
Before the arrival of Zarco and Lowes, both Shark and Furygan took to the stage to launch their new product respectively. Shark launched their latest model, the Shark Spartan that was to replace the outgoing Shark Speed R and Furygan launched their multiple new ventilated jackets that are made especially for tropical countries like Malaysia.
Right after the launching, Zarco rolled in on the MiniGP bike. Honestly, that was really a small bike for a reigning world champ. Anyway, he looked bloody fantastic on it. Next of course is the Q&A session and we, from the MinistryOfSuperbike was given the honour to zoom in the first question.
‘How confident are you to win the World Championship in Malaysia?’
‘I will try my best and hopefully win this championship in Sepang.’
For some reason, Lowes came a little late and was not able to ride with us. Anyhow, all of us had a fantastic time with them. Ask yourself how often could one spend almost 4 hours with 2 great riders in a private event? I saw the envy in your eyes.
The time came for us to challenge Zarco. The media group was the first to challenge. I was represented by a junior rider from the MinistryOfSuperbike in my place and was his first time on a MiniGP bike. It seemed fair for Zarco to start from the last grid as we expected him to overtake all of us even before Turn 1.
The race started but our rider failed to launch from the starting grid because his bike simply refused to start. Too excited perhaps. Zarco, on the other hand, was really fast but one of the MiniGP regular managed to close the gap between him and Zarco and he (Zarco) off throttle a few times to wait. Clearly Zarco outmatched every single one of us.
After a few hard laps, our junior rider ended up in front of Zarco at the last lap (after Zarco overlapped him of course). All of us crossed the finish line with Zarco doing a spectacular wheelie.
MinistryOfSuperbike.com would like to take this opportunity to thank Winmaster Sdn Bhd for this exclusive invite to spend half a day with two great riders from Moto2
