The last and only Malaysian rider in the Malaysian owned Petronas Sepang Racing Team (Petronas SRT) has finally been given the boot largely due to his poor performance in the Moto3 category. The official announcement was made today on the team’s official website and Facebook page.
Khairul Idham Pawi (KIP) or popularly known as Superkip joined Petronas SRT on their first season racing in Moto2 in 2019 securing only 3 points having finished only three rounds and DNF in Round 4. He was then replaced by Jonas Folger for the remaining of Moto2 season in 2019.
It was very unfortunate that KIP was further demoted to Moto3 in 2020 and did not score any points while his teammate, Scottish rider John McPhee scored 109 points, fifth in the world standing. KIP poor performance is largely due to his finger injury.
KIP rises to fame during the 2016 season, racing for Honda Team Asia; creating history for being the first Malaysian rider to win 2 races in Moto3.
The telltale of KIP getting the boot has been surfacing on social media especially when team principal Datuk Razlan Razali rants about KIP’s poor attitude towards training despite the team has prepared equal training facilities to all riders in the team. Naturally, Razlan’s rants on Facebook received tons of backlash from local fans.
“These past two seasons have been very tough, with my hand injury, but I have enjoyed being part of PETRONAS Sprinta Racing. I would like to say thank you to everyone in the team, all the crew, and partners for helping me over the two years, in both the good and bad times. I wish the team every success in the future, because they are great people. Of course, I want to continue riding so I will work to find the best option in my racing career. I will try my best to show my potential again and reward all the fans that have been supporting me since the beginning. Thank you all!” – Khairul Idham Pawi
“Whilst recognising the talent and potential of KIP, it’s clear that after two years together we have not been able to achieve our shared goals. Clearly, injury has played a part in KIP’s performance over the past two seasons, but looking to the future we have both agreed that a different direction for both parties is necessary. We wish KIP the very best in his future career.” – Datuk Razlan Razali, Team Principal.
