Hoping to finish the season with a flourish, the Junior Talent Team get ready for a final duel in Valencia
The 2022 FIM JuniorGP™ World Championship brought the final qualifying of the season as Round 8 dawned at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Spain. For 2022’s Junior Talent Team, the eighth season of the JTT, it was a prosperous day with plenty of hope and hype going into Sunday. Leading the way was Malaysian rider Danial Sharil (Asia Talent Team) who finished in 12th, with plenty more potential to be achieved when racing commences on Sunday.
With a mix of fast times coming from the morning and the afternoon, it was all about track position and timing in the JuniorGP™ class at Valencia. Sharil improved his time in the second session and finished just over a second from pole position. His 1’40.435 was good enough for the fourth row in 12th, a strong ride from the 19-year-old from Penang, who also scored points on his last visit to Valencia earlier in the year. After penalties were applied for other riders, Sharil is set to start Race 1 from ninth.
Aiming to make gains on Sunday and move into the points positions, Arbi Aditama (Astra Honda Racing Team) qualified 17th but has a back of the grid penalty for slow riding in QP1. The Indonesian rider improved his time in the afternoon by more than three tenths and finished just over a second away from pole position; he’ll hope for a strong Sunday at the circuit where he scored his first points of 2022 at. Aiming for a step on Sunday is Tatchakorn Buasri (Honda Racing Thailand), as the Thai rider qualified in 19th. Buasri always shines on Sunday during the races and improved his time by nearly a second in the afternoon. With a top five in Valencia earlier on in 2022 from eighth on the grid, Buasri is one to watch. As riders have penalties around them, Buasri will start Race 1 from P13.
Following an injury and a subsequent operation, Eddie O’Shea (British Talent Team), who claimed a career-first podium at Jerez in Race 2, will miss the final round of the year. He puts his focus on getting back to 100% fitness so that he can come back fighting strong in 2023.
Two races for the class this weekend promise to provide stunning action and lights go out for Race 1 at 11:00 local time (GMT+1) whilst Race 2 gets underway at 14:00, both set for 18 laps of battle.
