With the announcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO) extension to May 12 by the Malaysian government, Petronas Sepang Racing Team (SRT) Moto3 rider Khairul Idham Pawi, better known to fans as “Super KIP”, is adapting to the situation. Returning to Malaysia after the season opening race in Qatar, Perak boy Khairul has been homebound since March 8.
Keeping up his training regime, 21-year old Super KIP says he is filling his time with lots of indoor cycling. “As we have to stay at home I have been training indoors. I have my bike set up so I can ride that indoors and I also have some weights at home so I have been able to work on my strength training too,” said Khairul.
Returning to Moto3 after last year’s three races in Moto2 with Petronas SRT, Khairul is looking forward to being competitive when the 2020 MotoGP season resumes. “We don’t know when the season will start again so I’m trying to focus on that and keep training hard to be ready. But I have been doing some cleaning round the house and some more cooking as there isn’t too much to do apart from training,” he said.
Khairul also remarked on the differences between the Moto2 and Moto3 race bikes, saying it calls for a different riding style. “I think the main differences are that the Moto3 bike is lighter than the Moto2 bike and the engines are different. The riding style needs to change between the two because of this, but in Moto3 I have so much confidence in hard braking zones,” Super KIp said.
Hailing from Kampung Gajah, Perak, Khairul started his racing career in the Malaysian Cub Prix in 2012, competing in the Wira class. He made the move to the FIM CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship in 2015 before moving to Moto2 in 2017 with idemitsu Honda Team Asia, then joining SRT in 2019.