McKinley Kyle Paz of Yamaha Philippines Stylobike Racing Team and April King Mascardo and Gian Carlo Mauricio of UMA Racing MMR Yamaha Philippines Team were ready to make a splash in their respective races last weekend. Each rider racing under the Philippine Flag is eager to represent their country and deliver a victory.
For the boys at the ARRC, they were hoping to replicate Mascardo’s podium finish from the previous round. However, they would be denied this victory in Malaysia. The Filipinos were in top form in race one, leading the racers for several laps but finished sixth and seventh. April dropped out of race two, leaving Mauricio to compete against the best of Asia. And he would succeed by finishing third. But his celebration would be short-lived, as penalties lobbed against him dropped him to 14th place.
‘The Wonderboy’ didn’t have luck on his side either as he was relegated to P36 on the grid for race one due to a long lap penalty. He would salvage this by fighting his way to 14th place. But race two would deal a devastating blow as Kyle would leave the race and suffer a DNF.
It was a disappointing turn of events for the Philippine racing teams, but it only set up a grand finale performance for their racing seasons. Kyle’s FIM JRGP season will come to a close on October 31 in Valencia,Spain. April and Gian will conclude their ARRC campaign in Thailand on November 19-20.