Asia Road Racing Championship


The FIM Asia Road Racing Championship is the regional motorcycle road racing championship for Asia, held since 1996.
This championship is part of the production-based category of racing, similar to the Supersport World Championship, British Supersport Championship and AMA Supersport Championship. Modified versions of road-going motorcycles available to the public are featured in the race.
The championship is currently divided into four open-make classes - the ASB1000, SuperSports 600cc, Asia Production 250cc and Underbone 150cc. The new Asian Superbikes class revved off in 2019.

Overview

The Asia Road Racing Championship was first organized in 1996 as part of an Asian-wide initiative boost the development of the sport of motorcycle racing in the continent. The championship received the endorsement of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme in 1997 and has been recognized since as the Asian continental championship for the FIM.
The commercial rights are owned by Two Wheels Motor Racing, with FIM Asia as the sports sanctioning body.
The 2020 season consists of seven rounds with two races organized per round.

Circuits

The championship tours in Asia but is open to riders from all nationalities.
The Asia Road Racing 2020 season consisted of 14 races at 5 circuits in 5 Asian countries.
Other venues that had previously hosted the Asia Road Racing Championship included:

Current broadcasters

Worldwide

Live coverage, on-demand, and highlights for free practices, qualifications, and races is available on Asia Road Racing Championship's official Facebook page and Youtube channel, as well as .

Asia-Pacific

Spain (the one and only European country)

All races are streamed through subscription service DAZN.

Chronology: winners and race classes

1996–1999

The road racing series began on 2-stroke engines.
YearSeries Production 250cc Sports Production 150cc Underbone 125cc Underbone 110cc
1996 Shahrol Yuzy Ahmad Zaini Direk Achawong Somkuan Raemee
1997 Chow Yan Kit Direk Achawong Niphon Saengsawang Eakrach Punbuppha
1998 Youichi Nakajima Direk Achawong Eakrach Punbuppha Amporn Siriphat
1999 Naoto Ogura Direk Achawong Eakrach Punbuppha Surapong Boonlert

2000

The gradual shift to 4-stroke engines began in 2000 when the SuperSports 600cc class replaced the previous 250cc bikes as the premier class of the championship.
YearSuperSports 600cc GP125 Underbone 125cc Underbone 110cc
2000 Chia Tuck Cheong Suhathai Chaemsap Surapong Boonlert Thammanoon Sillapakul

2001–2002

2003

2004–2005

2006

2007–2011

2012–2014

2015–2016

2017

2018

2019–2020

Notable achievements

The Asia Road Racing Championship is a mix of well-known riders racing against upcoming talents from the Asian region. Some of the big names that have contributed to the growth of the sport of road racing in Asia include Katsuaki Fujiwara, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Yuki Takahashi and Noriyuki Haga. In 2016, Anthony West was the latest addition in the roster of internationally recognized names. For the 2019 season, Australian racers who have participated in both MotoGP and World Superbike take part in the series, they are Broc Parkes, and Bryan Staring.
This formula of pitting upcoming talents against seasoned campaigners have resulted in a number of successes. In recent years, riders from the Asian region are beginning to make their breakthrough into the MotoGP arena. These include:
On July 4 to 11, 2016, five young riders from the Asia Production 250cc class became the first batch of riders to be trained at the VR46 Academy in Italy as part of the Yamaha|VR46 Master Camp. They were Peerapong Loiboonpeng, Imanuel Putra Pratna, Galang Hendra Pratama, Soichiro Minamimoto and Kasma Daniel Kasmayudin.