Racel Paul to drive in GT Radial team

JAKARTA (JP): Canadian supercar racer Robert J. Paul will drive for the GT Radial team in the two-day supercar race at Sentul, near Bogor, starting today.

The supercar race will be followed by the national Formula Asia race.

Paul, who won the 1997 national drag race series, won the national supercar race in 1995 and came third last year.

In the drag race series, Paul, who drove for the Star Mild team along with Indonesian Ronny Hermawan, clinched the title before the final leg, also at the Sentul circuit, on Oct. 5.

The sixth leg was won by local driver Wie Wie Riantor. Paul and Ronny had to be satisfied with second and third places respectively.

Riantor's victory only propelled him to 43 points and third in the final rankings. Paul was first with 99 points and Ronny second with 54 points.

The series consisted of six legs, including races in Batam, Manado and Bali.

"With the support of GT Radial, this year I will do my best to repeat my success of 1995," Paul said Thursday. For the supercar race, Paul will drive the BMW M3 which he also used in the drag races.

Paul said he would be the main racer in the GT Radial team.

Paul's main rivals in today's race will be Chandra Alim, Hutomo Mandala Putra, Alex Asmasoebrata and Indra Saksono.

The national supercar series will continue on Nov. 29 and Dec. 21.

Motokazu Ohtsuka of Japan, won the Gudang Garam motocross championship in the Special Engine 125cc class held at the Mayang Alam circuit in Pekanbaru, Riau last Sunday.

Ohtsuka collected 40 points and was followed by Jye Harvey of Australia (34) and local motocrossers Irwan Ardiansyah (30), Andi Suryanto (26), Satya Sunarso (22) and Denny Orlando (20).

Harvey led the pack of 17 motocrossers but on the third lap Ohtsuka overtook him and held the lead until the finish line.

In the Special Engine 80cc class, local rider Zulfikar was unable to compete with motocrossers from Australia and managed only fifth place.

Although Zulfikar lost the race, he leads the standings in the SE 80cc class of the entire national motocross races this year with 72 points. Nugroho Indra Bayu is in second with 71 points.

The two motocross races in Pekanbaru attracted some 20,000 spectators. The local motocrossers mostly came from Aceh, Riau, North Sumatra and Padang. (lnt)