Chien Pin-Chi crowned first-ever series champion

Taiwan’s Chien Pin-Chi has been crowned the first-ever FIM MiniGP Southeast Asia (SEA) series champion.

The Taiwanese rider scored 70 points in the last four races of the championship held in Macau over the weekend, giving him 215 points and allowing him to be crowned the first champion of this series.

Interestingly, his most direct competitor, Hong Kong’s Cheung Yan Kit, also scored 70 points over the weekend. He could not capitalize on Chien’s zero-point score in Race 1 (Sunday), as he also scored zero in Saturday’s Race 2.

Cheung finished the championship with 207 points, just eight points behind Chien, who benefited from a better start to the season.

On the first weekend of the championship (Jul 5-6), Chien scored 60 points due to three second-place finishes, while Cheung scored only 42 points, a gap that proved vital to securing the overall win two months later.

Third overall went to another Hong Kong racer, Zhong Wen Ze, with 92 points, a far distance that showed that Chien and Cheung were on a different level than their opposition.

Rounds 5 and 6 of this championship brought several newcomers, eight in total, including Chen Qipeizheng (China), Muhammad Ali Imamudin (Indonesia), Faqih Waiz Al Ghifari (Indonesia), Ma Guangjia (China), Yu Nuoxi (China), Yu Nuoxian (China), Apichol Cheewachanon (Thailand), and Akira Chow (Hong Kong).

The first iteration of the MiniGP SEA involved 23 riders in total, with only two of them not scoring any points.

Unfortunately, one of the riders who did not score points was Liam Ao Ieong, the sole Macau participant in the series, and son of Macau racer Jack Ao Ieong.

Liam only participated in the first two rounds of the season. After this, he entered the local Automobile General Association Macao-China motorcycle championship in the Mini Bike category.

As the Times previously reported, the top two riders from the MiniGP SEA will have the chance to participate in the MiniGP World Finals in Valencia, Spain, ahead of the MotoGP championship finale in November.