Dark skies shrouded the circuit as the riders lined up for the second 300 race of the weekend, and the clouds broke just before ‘lights out’. Torrential rain brought a start delay which eventually lasted around one hour as marshals worked hard to clear the water-logged track. The young hopefuls remained focused despite the difficult circumstances as they prepared to attack the shortened eight-lap dash.
Galang Hendra Pratama (Sublime Racing by MS Racing) took the ‘holeshot’ and appeared confident in the wet, and before long he was joined by his younger brother Mahendra in second as the Indonesian had passed fellow Yamaha rider Humberto Maier, who also got off to a flying start. With five laps left in the challenging race it seemed that Pratama had one hand on his second career WorldSSP win, but a technical issue forced him into the pits. Mahendra now found himself in a group battle for the race lead but was unphased by the situation and put up a great fight, managing several calculated passes. The 17-year-old kept returning to the front to eventually cross the line +0.169 ahead of the field. The bLU cRU R3 title contender becomes only the second Indonesian to win in the class, after his brother in 2018.
Fellow wildcard and bLU cRU rider Kevin Fontainha (Sublime Racing by MS Racing) also stunned with a measured and mature ride against his more experienced rivals. The Brazilian took a great fourth place finish.
Yamaha front-runners Mirko Gennai, Marco Gaggi and Matteo Vannucci all failed to score points in the tough conditions with the latter finishing down in 20th and the two BrCorse team-mates falling at the end of the race. However, they remain in title contention, as does Maier who finished the race in ninth.
