Filipino Daquigan’s Historic Weekend!

The Philippines’ Alfonsi Daquigan made history last weekend at Chang International Cirucit in Buriram, Thailand during the opening of the 2025 FIM Idemitsu Asia Talent Cup (ATC).

Going into the new season, Daquigan was one of the rookies last year who impressed in his debut in an FIM International Championship. He managed to register 8 top 10 finishes and a few races fighting for the podium to eventually land in 9th place overall in the final championship standings. All stats are record highs for any rider from the motorcycle racing mad country Philippines.

His performance secured him a sophomore year in the ATC. With many of the top 10 riders moving on, Daquigan who is supported by Honda Philippines, Inc. (HPI) and coached by Watanabe Racing Development (WRD), is one of the favorites to regularly fight for a top 5 or a podium in every race. Moreover, the Filipino teenager also earned a lot to be part of the Honda Asia Junior Talent Team that will see him race in the FIM European Talent Cup wherein he will race in major circuits in Europe racing within the FIM Junior GP calendar.

Daquigan did not disappoint in all expectations, running always within the fast group in all pre-season and practice sessions. He was as high as P2 in one test. He qualified in an impressive P4 for the first race, another record for himself and his country.

In both ATC races of the weekend, we observed, and in our view, he now has the final ingredient in his riding repertoire to make him a regular Top 5 if not a podium finisher. Maturity.

In Race 1, he concentrated on not getting left behind by the lead pack, steadily staying in the draft of riders and just fighting for the top 5 and not pushing recklessly. By doing so, he managed to gain a whole race distance experience of what it’s like to be at the front of the pack until the end. He eventually finished a safe P5 to open his season.

In Race 2, he added another record by leading the very competitive and tough ATC field by no less than 5 times during the race. The race commentators mentioned his name more times in this one race than they did half of the season last year. And their comments suggest that they have found a new level of respect and expectation from Daquigan for the rest of 2025.

He executed aggressive but on point maneuvers to pass for the lead and never lost composure whenever he was overtaken. Unfortunately he lost the draft from the top 3 and fell to 6th with a couple of laps left. Again, he did an amazing job to pass another rider at the last lap to finish in P5 again.

“Felt good all week long. Although the results didn’t show my full potential, I know what I can achieve for all of the upcoming races. We can only go up from here. Next is winter camp,” shared Alfonsi.

He leaves Thailand P5 in the standings and is another record for the Philippines.  Filipinos are very proud of this achievement and his results are already inspiring a lot young Filipino riders back at home.

His next Asia Talent Cup race will be at the MotoGP weekend in Qatar from April 11-13.

Alfonsi Daquigan began his motorsports career by racing pocketbikes in Japan at an early age. He then made his Philippine racing debut in the MotoIR3 MiniGP Championship. He then dominated the MotoIR Philippine Super Sportbike GP in 2024 at the same year, clinched his first IRGP championship title in the Super Sportbike GP class.

photos by Asia Talent Cup,  @daryljhonsantos and @davidclares

The BIGGEST Moto event🇵🇭!
260+ Brands from 140+ companies!
The Business of Moto Starts Here!
FREE MC PARKING. DAILY BIKE RAFFLE.
BIG DISCOUNTS. NATIONWIDE BIKE SHOW.
No advanced Registration required.
Walk-ins and On-site OK.