Arrival of moto riders adds extra spice to AXCR

[barrygrussell]

Reproduced by kind permission of Racing News Thailand: the motorcycle section of Edd Ellison's comprehensive coverage of the Asia Cross Country Rally

The 17th edition of the AXCR saw bikes included for the first time, bringing a real ‘Dakar’ feel to the ‘bivouacs’, as two and four wheel drive machines mixed together. Twenty riders were set to start, half from Japan, with four making up ‘Team Cambodia’, and three each for ‘Team Korea’ and ‘Team Thailand’.

With two of the three Thai bikes being entered by AP Honda, plus the KTM of Dusit Semangern (#118 KTM 690R), Thailand would stand a decent shot at victory against a hugely experienced Japanese contingent.

Over the 2.2 km SS1 it was Thailand immediately on top as the two factory Honda CRF250L machines of (#101) Manoch Abdullkalee and (#102) Jesadang Chotana swept to the front of the leaderboard with the former posting a fastest time of 2 mins 34 seconds and the latter being just 7 seconds further back when the clock stopped. Third, in 2:43, was the quickest Japanese runner, Tadao Ezure (#107 Yamaha WR450).

Onto Leg 2, and with a 398.13 km route (of which 219.45 km timed) the serious action got underway, and as the bikers rolled into overnight Parc Ferme in Sa Kaeo after a long and gruelling day, it shook out as a 1-3 finish for AP Honda with Manoch taking his second straight stage win in 3:25.41 with the interloper being Japan’s highly rated Yoshio Ikemachi (#103 Yamaha WR400). The top three on the bike classification going into Leg 3 reflected the stage finish.

Manoch, however, was only fourth quickest on Leg 3, the top two spots went to ‘Team Cambodia’ riders but they didn’t threaten at the front of the classification. Yoshio, did though, and he came in third chipping, almost three minutes out of the AP Honda rider’s lead, which came down to just 28 seconds. A tough stage for Jesadang saw him drop almost quarter of an hour and that slid the Honda rider down to seventh place overall. It would be all down to just one Thai rider.

And things just kept getting tighter at the front through Leg 4 and once it shook up an equally nail-biting final day was in store as Manoch’s lead was now down to just 18 seconds after SS4, the top two barely separable over 173.09 km of timed action. At the front and now riding on home soil, Team Cambodia had strolled to a 1-2-3 finish at the top of the time sheets, while both Manoch and Yoshio struggled, the later coming home only thirteenth fastest of the nineteen remaining riders and dropping more than nine minutes to the stage winner, but more importantly, he was 14 seconds faster than Manoch, and that halved the Thai rider’s lead, they were now on 8:20.38 and 8:20.52, and the rally was living up to all the expectations of nail biting excitement on the first bike participation.

It wasn’t to turn out to be a Thai winner in the bike category though as Yoshio, after chipping steadily away at Manoch all event, took another 39 seconds off the AP Honda rider over the final stage and that was enough for him to vault past to win by the smallest of margins, just 25 seconds, after a timed distance of seven hundred kilometres over treacherous surfaces.

The Japanese rider completed the final stage in 45 mins and 39 secs while Manoch turned in the distance in 46 mins and 18 secs. However it was a real fighting ride from the Thai rider and a performance to be proud of. His team mate, Jesadang, chipped away at the leaderboard to finish in an excellent fifth and with the third Thai rider, Dusit, finishing an excellent eleventh, all three ‘local’ starters had safely made the chequered flag.

 

[KTMphil]

Looks like a great event, thanks for the commentary Barry.

 

[KTMphil]

[h=2]Dusit rises to tough new challenge[/h]


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For the first time this year, on the occasion of its 17th edition, moto bikes were included in the Asia Cross Country Rally (AXCR) and 20 competitors in total lined up in Pattaya to take part in this adventure into the most inhospitable terrain that Thailand and Cambodia had to offer. That entry broke down into 10 Japanese riders, 4 Cambodians, 3 Koreans and 3 Thais. The latter, "Team Thailand", then broke down into the pairing of Manoch Abdullkalee and Jesadang Chotana on factory AP Honda supported CRF250Ls and Dusit Semangernon on a KTM 690R.



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Imbued with the spirit of competition and adventure, the AXCR, the ultimate test of man and machine was simply an event not to be missed for Dusit. He has been riding for more than fifteen years, and on the circuits for the last three; however off road is a new experience he has added to his long list of achievements over the last year and the AXCR would be his biggest test to date. He also had some useful help as he explains: "KTM supported me with many parts, preparing my bike, mechanical work, spare parts and all paper work."


In terms of the challenge, the Bangkok rider splits the AXCR into two halves: "The event can separated by country, in Thailand the routes were technical and difficult, moto and car race in the same route, dirt, gravel, muddy, creek and even a deep water crossing," he says, whereas Cambodia threw up a new challenge, presenting the riders with high speed, long and straight gravel roads - interspersed with treacherous bumps.


The first day was pretty uneventful he recalls: "The prologue SS was very short, only 2.2 km, and we ran in the ['Nong Kho' permanent] rally cross and motocross track."


Onto day two and AXCR was throwing up a distinct learning curve for new riders: navigation. "We ran in farming areas and jungle [with] some muddy parts, [that] made a problem to some cars but moto have no problem at all, however, so many riders, including me, are very new to the style [of] roadmap and navigation. The fastest [rider] was not the one who finished first but whoever [was] good in navigation got a top rank. The rest that got lost already learned something new."



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From 219.45 km timed on Leg 2 (398.13 km total distance) without a pause it was onto Leg 3 which boasted the rally's longest stage, at 226.46 km, and an equally long total day's running distance, at 394.22 km. That day, says Dusit, "was real challenging, rain made the route more difficult, slippery and muddy and a deep river crossing was an obstacle. However, with the lower speed than day two I can navigate more correctly. After the race all moto and car were full of mud and some needed a serious service to continue [in] the race."


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From there it was onto the penultimate stage. "On the fourth day we crossed the border into Cambodia and the route was completely changed," he continues, "[it was] high speed on gravel and bumpy roads that go straight forever [and] make me feel like the Dakar racers, my KTM 690 can reach 170 km/h in some part of the route but when the road turns to bumpy it was very dangerous when you hit a deep hole [at] over 100km/h speed. The race was short, only 140 km, with a high speed route [so] moto and car can finish SS in less than 2 hrs."


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That brought the tired riders and their battered machines onto the final day, a 72.22 km timed section that started at Angkok Wat and looped in a big circle before returning to the world famous landmark for the finishline ceremonies. "The last day of SS we only have 72 km to go and the route was not different much than [the previous day] with high speed bumpy roads [that] make my bike shake a lot. The aluminium base of [the] navigation instrument was destroyed, some riders crashed but none [were] injured. The race finished very quickly and we all free run in caravan to Angkor Wat and finished the race with happy faces," he says.



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And after this tough test of endurance, stamina and danger, was it enough to have notched the AXCR up on his CV? With Dusit, there is little chance of that. "Even though this was the first year that [the rally] has [a] moto class, many riders, including me, feel that we want to come back to AXCR next year."


by Edd Ellison