It is evident that IDEMITSU Honda Racing India has given much thought for the new season of the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC).

Bringing more Indian technicians into its fold, improving its R&D and bringing in Tomoyoshi Koyama, a former Moto GP rider to understand the track and train the Indians on how to adapt to the conditions, have been some of the developments Honda Racing India has done.

It looks like it might yield the desired results if the practice sessions ahead of the first round of ARRC at the Sepang International Circuit here on Friday are an indication.

Rajiv Sethu, in his third season, in the Asia Production 250cc class astride CBR 250RR, did well in three practice sessions (practice 1: 7th, practice 2: 14th, practice 3: 12th) to finish 7th on aggregate.

His best lap timing was 2:26.858.

Rookie Senthil Kumar (AP 250 class) too did pretty well to finish 17th on aggregate.

Rajiv and Senthil said it was difficult to drive with the humid weather conditions, but vowed to do their best.

ASTRA Honda Racing team’s Lucky Hendriansya emerged first on aggregate while Andy Muhammad Fadly of Manual Tech KYT Kawasaki Racing came second in practice.

(The writer is in Sepang at the invitation of Honda Racing India).