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Having completed its tours through Indonesia (Nov.~Dec.), Thailand (Jan.) and Malaysia (Feb.~Mar.), the PAN-ASEAN TOURING begins its fourth leg through Singapore. After successfully completing the Malaysia leg of the tour on Mar. 5., the Vietnamese riders returned to Vietnam of the 6th, while the Indonesian riders Roy Adrianto and Hardi Fadhillah, the Thai riders Chuchat Sohmanee and Sutana Vipulakorn and the Philippine riders Lester Dizon and Dino Ray V. Directo III continued on to the Singapore leg. As for the Malaysian team, which has changed members several times thus far, it is now represented by Gim Sen Tan ("G.S.") and Daniel Phoon, who worked as a member of the staff during the Malaysia round. And, from Singapore, Bryan Kwang and Ryhan Bin Kamaruddin join the team of ten ASEAN riders for the first time. Also, continuing from the Malaysia round are Japanese representative from YMC, Masayoshi Ono and Yuuji Sakuma, bringing the total to 12 riders.
This PAN-ASEAN TOURING is an event to promote the new "T135" sporty moped that Yamaha Motor is launching in six ASEAN markets (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and already the tour has traveled some 9341 km through three of these countries.
It was at 9:00 a.m. in front of the main Yamaha Showroom of the distributor for Malaysia and Singapore, Hong Leong Corporation Holdings Pte. Ltd., that its General Manager, Mr. Hoe Boon Meng waved the flag to start the riders on their Singapore tour. Also on hand from YMC in Japan was Mr. Hidenobu Hama who joined in the ceremony by simultaneously sounding the starting horn. At this signal, the riders pulled out onto the street on their T135 machines led by the riding marshals. Their first destination was Kallang Stadium where they were scheduled to enjoy a half day of "Gymkhana" competition on a specially arranged course. This is a competition designed to improve riders' bike control skills and thus help make them safer riders. When the competition was over and the scores totaled, the individual winner was Singapore's Ryhan Bin Kamaruddin and the winning team was Indonesia.
Tomorrow the tour will head to Sentosa Island, whose name means "Peace and Calm" in Malay.
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9:00 a.m., Flag-off for the Singapore round
The moment of the flag-off to start the PAN-ASEAN TOURING in its fourth country, Singapore
There was a traffic jam caused by a car accident. The traffic is heavy and it is necessary for the riders to stay in tight formation
Our chief marshal, Tony Yeo, divided the caravan into two groups to maneuver the traffic on Singapore's main roads
After dinner in downtown Singapore that night, the ASEAN riders went on a river cruise to enjoy the night cityscape. (From left: Roy, Chuchat, Dino, Hardi, Sutana and Lester)
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