Malaysian racer Damok takes maiden win in FIM CEV

A bittersweet weekend for Malaysian motorcycle racer Syarifuddin Azman at Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain as he took his first ever win in the FIM CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship in Race 1. Unfortunately Syarifuddin, popularly known as Damok to Malaysian racing fans, didn’t repeat his success in Race 2, unable to complete the race due to another rider taking him out on lap 11.

Damok, who rides for Monlau Motorsport SIC Racing, finished the 74.5 kilometre race in a time of 29:32:533 over 16 laps, beating David Munoz Rodriguez of Avatel-Cardaso Racing by 0.162 seconds. Riding a Honda NSF250 with a #63 race number, 19-year old Damok, who started the race in tenth position on the grid, made a last lap charge at turn 10, shooting ahead to first place from fifth.

With the win in Race 1 Damok gets 25 points for his podium position, putting him at 10th place in the CEV championship standing with 31 points. It was mixed fortunes for other Malaysians competing in the CEV series, with Adam Norrodin, competing in the CEV Moto2 championship, crashing out five laps from the end in Race 1, but redeeming himself with a fourth place finish in Race 2, putting the Liqui Moly Intact SIC Racing rider fourth in the championship with 58 points.

Meanwhile, Malaysian racers in the European Talent Cup, Muhammad Sharul Ezwan and Hakim Danish, finished 14th and 19th in the weekend’s race. Shahrul has 11 points thus far this season, putting him 18th in the Talent Cup championship while Hakim has yet to garner any points.

Designed as a feeder series to MotoGP, the upper echelon of motorcycle racing, the CEV championship is a lower cost racing series, typically using race machines one season behind. Malaysian racers competing in CEV have come up through the racing ranks via the Malaysian Cub Prix, Asian Road Racing Championship and Asian Talent Cup.