MANILA, Philippines -- It’s Independence Day in the Philippines, yet as the rest of the country is celebrating, the members of Team Suzuki Pilipinas are already hard at work on their motorcycles early in the day. One can’t help but feel patriotic as Philippine flags fly high in the paddock. The bikes carry the country’s colors and so too do the team uniforms. Yet there’s no time for even a short break. In a few minutes, the first practice session of the day will begin, and it will be the team’s final chance to qualify for a place in the day’s races.

The team is in Sentul International Circuit in Indonesia. It’s nearly four kilometers long, going clockwise with 11 turns. The track is reminiscent of Italy’s Autodromo Internazionale at Imola, shaped like a reverse L and designed for high speed.

It’s the second round of the Petronas Asia Road Racing Championship (ARCC), a six round race series for 600cc motorcycles and 115cc underbones. The series is dominated by Yamaha and Kawasaki teams, run by Malaysians, Thais, Indonesians, Japanese and Indians. Team Suzuki Pilipinas is the only Philippine team participating for the whole season. It’s also the only team using Suzuki bikes.

The 1st round in Sepang, Malaysia was certainly trying for the team. Underbone rider John Lery Enriquez only managed to finish the first race with no points. The team’s Superbike rider, Maico Greg Buncio, made a strong showing in his segment, but a collision with another rider halfway through the race caused him to retire.

Less than a month before the second round, he had tragically met an accident during the Philippine National Superbike Championship time trials at the Clark International Speedway on May 14. He succumbed to massive internal bleeding at 3:57 p.m. on Sunday, May 15 at the University of Santo Tomas Hospital in Manila.

Despite bearing a heavy loss, Team Suzuki Pilipinas continues to soldier on, as Maico would have wanted. The team has been in Sentul for a week now, practicing on track, testing settings and working to get it right before the big race day.

Underbone rider John Lery Enriquez has been practicing for a whole week. For the superbike class, Maico’s mentor, Yesuke Teshima, winner of the Superstock 600 class in the 2009 All Japan Road Race Championship, has gladly stepped in to ride for the team.

It hasn’t been an easy week for John Lery. Back in the Philippines, underbone races typically take place on shorter tracks with shorter gear ratios.

In these long circuits, longer ratios are required and the team has been relying on Indonesian mechanics and their expertise to adjust to it. Naturally, some communication issues and mechanical problems have arisen. The bike was in the pit for most of the qualifying session. Thankfully, he has one last chance to earn a spot in the morning’s last practice session.

In the superbike class, Yusuke has been having better luck. Problems with the bike were resolved quick enough for him to catch the last few minutes of qualifying and gain the 14th spot on the grid.

Mechanical problems continued to plague John Lery whose bike wasn’t able to make it to the morning practice session. Thankfully, having signed up for the full season, Enriquez will get to start from last place. Transmission problems persisted and Lery was clearly off the pace. He ended the race only having done 5 of the 10 laps required. Come race 2, the transmission was returned to the previous setting and John was able to keep pace and finish the race in 20th place. It’s a far better result than not having raced at all.

In the superbike class, a throttle cable problem forced Teshima to retire from race 1 early. With the bike back in the pit, the team worked frantically to solve the problem before the second race.

Everything seemed to be in order when the bike was lined up again for race 2. Yusuke quickly picked up the pace and gained two more places to finish 12th and earn some valuable points for the team.

Despite the mixed results, the team has already made its mark on the series. On the day of the race, all the riders together with the race committee paid tribute to Maico with a minute of silence during the morning briefing before the free practice session started.

To further honor him, riders took the liberty of placing stickers of Maico's competition number (#129) on their respective bikes, helmets and even racing suits. After the race, each rider gladly signed Maico’s paddock sign with kind words for the family.

Just as soon as all the festivities have concluded, teams already began packing up for the next round. The five cargo assigned to each team will be filled with their bikes and tools, inventoried and shipped to the next race in Madras Circuit in India on Aug 7. Of course, Team Suzuki Pilipinas will be there too, continuing to fly the flag and hopefully capture a victory for the country.