Friday, November 24: Hungarian racer Gyorgy Kasza sealed his second Moto win of the day to confirm victory in the Samosir Cup in a race where second place confirmed the 2023 UIM-ABP Endurance World Championship and overall success in the Grand Prix of Indonesia for French veteran Jean-Bruno Pastorello on Sumatra’s spectacular Lake Toba.

Kasza’s second victory of the day by the margin of 12.645 seconds confirmed that he earned the Samosir Cup with maximum points but drama had unfolded behind the Hungarian two laps from the finish.

Kuwait’s Rashed Al-Dawas was running in a comfortable second place and managing to stay clear of Pastorello in a bid to win the Grand Prix and the World Championship but the talented student hit technical trouble and slipped back to an eventual eighth place and third in the title standings. An ecstatic Pastorello, who had retired from the morning’s race with a sheared propeller on his Kawasaki, duly earned a record-breaking 20th World Championship title across several endurance disciplines.

Pastorello said: “What a story. It was very difficult. A case of finishing first or last. I knew that Al-Dawas had a problem and I kept saying to myself every metre, push, push. When I saw the clock and two minutes and then I see what happened to him. And I won. One point is enough… Thanks to the organisation, the security and this race venue.”

Alabama-based American racer Anthony Radetic came home in third and that earned the former helicopter pilot the second step on the Endurance World Championship podium, five points behind Pastorello. Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al-Tayer finished fourth and wrapped up three days of racing with a similar position in the championship.

Australia-based Kylie Ellmers came home in fifth, while Johan Johansson and Cseke Zsolt finished sixth and seventh. Johansson and Ellmers duly finished fifth and sixth in the World Championship standings. Aitzol Beristain and Hilman Kurniawan rounded off the top 10 in the Moto behind Al-Dawas and Alberto Santini, Kanina Ramadhina, Lucky Limanjawa and Kristian Kuchta also secured race finishes.

The second of Friday’s Motos on the 3.96km course close to the event’s base camp at Pangururan would decide the outcome of both the Samosir Cup and the UIM-ABP Endurance World Championship.

Held under the ‘United Spirit of Lake Toba’ banner, it attracted 15 starters with a morning piston failure sidelining Thai racer Permphon Teerapatpanich and a sheared propeller putting paid to Alejandro Molina Miranda’s title chances. Cliff Ellmers, Michele Cadei, Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq, Makaio Wimylie and François Medori also failed to start.

Kasza, 39, led from the off and stayed clear of new championship leader Al-Dawas, Al-Tayer and Karo and Dairi Cup winner Pastorello through lap one. That advantage had grown to 12.483 seconds after three laps, as Al-Tayer and Pastorello both managed to squeeze past Al-Dawas and snatch second and third places. As it stood, Pastorello would pip Al-Dawas to the world title on a tie-break!

But the Frenchman was in determined mood and managed to overtake Al-Tayer to snatch second place, a position that would give him the world title outright if he could retain it for the remaining 24 minutes of the race. But it was not to be and the 51-year-old dropped back to fourth place on lap six behind his two Arab rivals in what was developing into a topsy-turvy finale to three thrilling days of endurance action on the spectacular volcanic lake.

With Chen Shan sidelined after two laps with ongoing technical issues, fastest lap winner Kasza extended his advantage over Al-Dawas to 13.237 seconds through lap seven, but Pastorello managed to regain third place at the expense of Al-Tayer, who had also been overtaken by Al-Dawas.

Would there be a late twist? Al-Dawas was able to fend off the challenge from Pastorello and also began to close in on leader Kasza. The gap was down to 8.834 seconds heading into lap 13, although Pastorello was running less than four seconds behind the Kuwaiti, knowing that he needed to pass the student to claim yet another world title.

There were no late dramas for Kasza and the Hungarian entertained the massive crowds lining the side of the lake with a second win of the day. Al-Dawas was maintaining an impressive pace to see off Pastorello and seal the World Championship but it went badly wrong on lap 18 and the Frenchman found a way through to seal the title, with a heart broken Al-Dawas hitting trouble and plummeting out of contention. The Kuwaiti also slipped behind Radetic, Al-Tayer, Ellmers, Johansson and Zsolt to finish eighth after 21 laps.

Lake Toba is part of the Toba Caldera UNESCO Global Geopark and is one of five UNESCO global geoparks in Indonesia. It is one of Indonesia’s Super Priority Tourism Destinations (DPSP).

Tomorrow (Saturday) is the first day of the final round of the UIM-ABP Aquabike Pro World Championship with free practice sessions for Ski Ladies GP1, Ski Division GP1, Runabout GP1 and Freestyle entrants getting underway from 09.00hrs (local time) at a new race venue in Balige.