After two seasons in supersport with Team Orelac’s Kawasaki, it’s back to the world championship for the 27-year-old Malaysian rider Zulfahmi Khairuddin, newly recruited from the SIC Racing Team, a team that already had another Malaysian under contract, Hafizh Syahrin, who could now replace Jonas Folger in Team Tech3’s M1. At this point it is becoming more and more likely that Syahrin will ride the Yamaha in the reigning class.
Khairuddin, meanwhile, spent several seasons in the world championship and even scored two podiums, the first in Sepang in 2012 with the Moto3 KTM (where he started from pole and finished second), the second came later in the same season with a third place at Valencia .
The Malaysian then drove to a supersport podium. Where? Yes, Sepang of course, a track where he started his career and knows the Khairuddin very well, the heat, the potholes, even the snakes that cross them.
The Kalex of the team around the Swede Johan Stigefelt is ready for Zulfahmi: “I’m excited to be returning to the World Championship and will be working on building confidence in the Moto2 Kalex during the tests in Valencia scheduled for February. Coming from Supersport, I don’t think I’ll have any real problems, but I still have a few more kilometers to go with the new bike. “