DOHA: The Losail International Circuit, the region’s only MotoGP racing track, will host the sixth and last round of the 2013 Petronas Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC) this weekend.
The three-day leg will be held from tomorrow to November 24.
The previous five rounds have been held in Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan and Taiwan.
Losail - the venue of the only MotoGP race held under lights every season - will host the ARRC leg for the third time, the Qatar Motor and Motorcycling Federation (QMMF) in a statement yesterday.
This championship - which began in 1996 - has evolved over the years and is now contested in three categories: SuperSports 600cc, Underbone 115cc and Asia Dream Cup.
“The championship provides a stepping stone for young riders to get experience and acquire skills on way to becoming MotoGP riders,” Nasser bin Khalifa Al Attiyah, President of QMMF, said yesterday.
“This series for young riders is very important as it helps them learn many things at this stage of their careers,” he said.
Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha are the four manufacturers in the field in the six-leg championship.
In the Supersports 600cc, the points leader and the defending champion is Katsuaki Fujiwara from Japan. The Kawasaki rider has a total of 202 points.
Behind him is fellow Japanese rider Ryuichi Kiyonari with 186 points on a Honda bike.
The 2012 champion in the 600cc class will be crowned at Losail Circuit this weekend.
In the Underbone 115cc class, the 2010 champion Hadi Wijaya has sealed his the title after accumulating an insurmountable tally of 208 points from five rounds.
The second-placed rider in the Underbone 115cc class has 135 points.
Losail Circuit will also crown the champion in the Asia Dream Cup this week.
Only nine points separate Hikari Okubo and Hiroki Ono, the top two riders.
For the Qatari round, there will be a wild card in the Supersport 600 category, Nasser Al Malki (pictured).
Al Malki arrived from Spain earlier this week after completing his participation in the 2012 Spanish Championship in Valencia.
Al Malki was also a wild card entry during last year’s leg of ARRC. THE PENINSULA
