Eddie O’Shea returns to the points with a top-ten finish, while Joel Kelso crashes out from sixth place in Malaysia.
After Sunday’s race in Australia was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions, the team travelled to Malaysia for the penultimate round of the overseas tour of the season.
It was a positive weekend in terms of qualifying, with both riders securing direct passage to Q2 on Friday. Kelso claimed a place on the third row of the grid after setting the seventh fastest time, while O’Shea qualified on the fifth row in 13th place.
Both riders lined up on Sunday determined to put an end to their recent run of point-less finishes in Japan and Indonesia.
Joel held his position in the opening stages, running seventh for the first few laps before moving up to sixth and closing in on the leading group. However, his race came to an unfortunate end with just three laps remaining, when he crashed out, bringing his hopes of a strong finish to an end.
“Pretty bummed about this one. We made our way up to P6 and were closing in on the group before it all came to an end.
The results really don’t reflect the hard work the team has been putting in lately. We’ve made some great steps forward over the last couple of rounds, now we just need to turn that progress into results. ”
Meanwhile, Eddie put together a solid race. After dropping back to 14th at the start, he had already moved up to 12th by lap four. He spent the remainder of the race battling for a place inside the top ten and, with four laps to go, managed to get ahead of his group rivals to secure a place in the top ten. He eventually crossed the finish line in 10th place, claiming six valuable championship points.
“We’re back inside the top 10! We struggled to find the last little bit all weekend, but I’m happy enough with a P10. ”
The team has now arrived in Doha, Qatar, where they will compete in the final Grand Prix of the overseas tour this weekend.