The National Motorcycle Sports and Safety Association (NAMSSA) takes pride in making the Philippines one of the pioneers of the forthcoming Asian Road Race of Nations 2006 set July 6-7 in Thailand.

The Asian Road Race of Nations, a brainchild of the Motorcycle Federation of Japan, is an Olympic style road race event aimed at developing the first stage of teamwork competition in Asia reaching Olympic level. Only nations, not individual riders, get awarded. Each participating country will be represented by three riders but only the scores of the top two riders will count for each country.

Eleven countries will be competing for the title in the initial staging of the said event. Aside from the Philippines and host Thailand, the others are Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Macau, Hongkong, China, Malaysia and Japan.

NAMSSA, an affiliate of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the Federation Internationale des Motocycliste (FIM), has nominated three talented riders Jaime Barcial, Roderick Chua and Maico Buncio to represent Team Philippines, supported by Philippine Sports Commission, NAMSSA, Norkis Yamaha, Fastlane, Bike Plus, YRS, Revzone and Nitro Shock Absorbers.

“NAMSSA has elected these top riders based on their racing history in NAMSSA-sanctioned events and have excelled accordingly in their motorsports discipline of underbone road racing,” said NAMSSA president Ken Falco.

FIM UAM Vice President for Asia Macky Carapiet and managing council said ” It’s is good to see 11 Asian nations participating in this new project. We are proud that around the world, it is only in Asia that we have first launched the Asian Nations of Road Race for the motorcycling discipline in the world.

“We are also well-acknowledged by other continental unions and the FIM world governing body for this feat, thanks to the idea of Japan Federation that had been the catalyst for the project with the cooperation of all FIM Asian member nations.

Team Philippines will be using family 130cc underbone Yamaha bikes, coordinated by Yamaha-Thailand and Norkis Philippines.

“We’re proud that Yamaha will be the official supplier of the Philippine Road Race team for the Asian Road Race of Nations Cup, and we’re looking forward to see good results when they return,” said Boy Albos, president of Norkis-Yamaha Philippines.

Site of the kickoff leg is the 2.5-kilometer Nakhonchaisri track located in Nakhonchaisri District, Nakhonprathom or 80 Kms. from Bangkok. The races will be broadcasted live and can be seen on Thai Channel 7 at 1400 - 1600 hrs in Philippine afternoon time.

Among those that have confirmed for the event are Taiwan’s lady Yamaha rider Chun-Mei Liu, Kuo Lieang Chiang and Suzuki’s Min-Lin Ho, China’s So Rung Zhai, Wang Xiao Yuan and Zhou You Yao, Sri Lanka’s Frank Dissayanake, Shrian Samuel and Prabath Peiris, Singapore’s Kuang Fu You, Ryhan bin Kamaruddin and Charles Herns. Thailand’s Rattapong Virairoj, Prawat Yanwuth and Jeerasak Chaimontri, Japan’s Hiroyuki Kikuchi, Akira Komuro and Seiya Adachi.