King's Buriram Baptism Leaves Him Hungry for More
Thailand's brutal heat and a turn three tangle in race one were Saturday blips as the Silverdale teen fights in the Asia Road Race championship
From Sepang to The Bend to Buriram, Tyler King keeps finding a way.
The Silverdale 19-year-old’s ability to overcome adversity and find fresh speed on different bikes was on show again Saturday as he secured a second successive TVS Asia One Make Championship (TVS Asia OMC) top 10 at the Chang International Circuit.
King survived the heat and humidity of Buriram, a new circuit learned in hours, a tricky qualifying and a race start that went slightly sideways to claim 9th and remain right in the 2026 Idemitsu FIM Asia Road Racing Championship fight.
It was a notable advance after the #14 qualified 13th, meaning a fight from the 5th row of the grid for the weekend’s two races at round two of the six-stop championship.
The good news is King is confident he can find yet more speed for Sunday’s race two, critical given the cut-throat nature of the development class raced on the Indian manufacturer’s identical TVS Apache RR 310 machines.
The Kiwi teen is fighting for his seat in the championship and knows nothing but results count, as more than a few riders found out the hard way after being cut from the series following the opening round at fabled Sepang in Malaysia last month.
King entered this weekend with more runs on the board, 6th in the TVS Asia OMC following a mechanical DNF in race 1 and a 4th in race 2 at Sepang, and fresh from extending his ASBK Supersport 300 championship lead at The Bend near Adelaide last weekend. That despite a race one, lap one crash on his rented Kawasaki Ninja 400 in Australia where he quickly picked himself up, battled back to 7th on the Saturday and two 2nd placings on Sunday. Adversity absorbed, consisent speed found, points banked.
He needs more of that resolve in Thailand after a turn three tangle at Buriram on Saturday left him scrambling from the get-go in race 1.
“Got a terrible start and made contact with a rider in turn 3 at the end of a straight which sent me, like, four or five seconds off the pack straight away,” King told The Final Sector from Thailand.
“So, I had to work hard but in the first three laps I caught back up to the field and had some good battles and got my lap time down to a minute 51 which is awesome because the leaders are all doing 51s as well. I was able to finish, I think, 2.5 seconds off the lead which I was really happy with considering the bad start.
“The goal for tomorrow is just to get a better start and try and fight at the front of the pack. We also changed the gearing because I was hitting the limiter heaps in the race which was just slowing me down a lot, I couldn’t really pass anyone down the straight. So yeah, really looking forward to tomorrow. Hope I get a better start and [can] fight inside the top 10 again.”
It’s been a whirlwind month for King as he chases his moto dream. The Bend was familiar but Thailand has been an assault on the senses, both at the Chang circuit and away from it.
“It’s obviously a lot hotter than New Zealand and just the culture of the people here and everything is just so crazy, like all the scooters on the road and everything, definitely an eye opener,” King said.
Learning the new circuit has come at King fast too.
“We had practice on Friday. It was a bit tough with only getting two 20 minute sessions to try and set up and bike and learn the track but we got there in the end, finishing just two seconds off the leader which I was pretty happy with considering everyone else has already been here [Buriram] and done a season on these bikes.”
In qualifying, King only got one lap with a tow and did well to end just .9 of a second off the pace in Q1 as a result. It wasn’t enough to get him to Q2 but lessons were banked.
“It’s very wide, I’m trying to get used to running onto the curbs because compared to the tracks back home in New Zealand, if you run into the curbs, you just get bumped straight off the track. So, I’m learning to use all of the track, every inch of it but yeah we’re slowly getting there which is good.”
Spaniard Luis Migue won Saturday’s race ahead of Malaysian Mohd Ramdan Rosli who lead the championship following Sepang. South African Oratilwe Phiri rounded out the podium.
Stay tuned to our social channels - @finalsectorracing – for coverage of race 2 on Sunday.