It looks like that Anthony West will not be appealing against the 30-day ban that he received from the FIM after testing positive to Methylhexanamine after the French GP last May, as QMMF has announced that Indonesian rider, 17-year old Rafid Topan Sucipto will be replacing him in this weekend’s final Moto2 round at Valencia.
Topan has no experience in Moto2 as he debuted this season in Asia Road Racing Championship Supersport 600cc class with the Yamaha Indoprom TJM Yamalube KYT team and is currently 16th, after winning the Indonesian national Novice championships in 2007 and 2008 and the Expert title in 2009 and in 2011 won the Underbone title in the Asia Road Racing Championship.
QMMF had already decided to field a young Indonesia rider in 2013 next to West – dropping Elena Rosell – as confirmed by Nasser bin Khalifa Al Attiyah, President of the Qatar Motor and Motorcycling Federation (QMMF) after the Phillip Island GP, where West scored his second straight podium, so Valencia may actually be Topan’s audition for a full-time ride in Moto2.
Photo source asiaroadracing.
com