Muhammad Zulfahmi Khairuddin, Malaysia’s first ever Supersport World Championship rider, has acknowledged the need for extra work to improve, following the completion of a two-day test in Jerez.
Zulfahmi, who rides for Orelac Racing, noted that he would need to work harder on his strength and fitness in view of the heavier Supersport machine as compared to his previous Moto3 bikes. He has nevertheless expressed delight with his first ever test session on the Kawasaki ZX6R machine.
“I clearly need to work on my physical fitness and strength because of the weight of the bike. It is much heavier and I could feel the impact after seven laps. I will continue to work on my physical fitness when I return to Malaysia, so that I will be more ready at the second test in Australia,” Zulfahmi said.
“Overall, I am happy with the two-day tests. We had some problems with the bike on Day 1 and we could not do as many laps as we wanted. Day 2 was better and we managed to do more laps. There is still plenty that we need to work on to improve, in terms of the bike as well as my riding style. We can only get better from here,” he added.
“I am very happy with the team and we have been working very well together. The team crew has a lot of experience in Supersports and I am very keen to learn from them. My lap time has continued to improve with every lap. We are still about two seconds behind the fastest rider, but it is early days for me and the team is very happy with my progress. We are confident that we can go much faster with more tests and more time on the bike,” Zulfahmi shared.
Zulfahmi is partnering Nacho Calero in the Orelac Racing Team, which participated in the World Supersport Championship and the EU Superstock last year. The Spanish-based team is owned by Jose Calero and managed by Giulio Bardi. Based in Algemesi near Valencia in Spain, the team is driven by the brilliance of crew chief Toni Alfonsea with Andy Machin as Zulfahmi’s chief mechanic, while Nacho has Luis Gallego as his chief mechanic.
In conjunction with the MOTUL Superbike World Championship, SIC is currently offering tickets at Super Early Bird promotional prices, which offers tempting discounts for the event as well as for the Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix, both of which will be held in October.
