Buriram (Thailand), May 7 (IANS): A knee injury delayed promising Indian racer Sarath Kumar's debut in the second Asian Road Racing Championship here on Saturday.

Sarath, who participated in the three Free Practice sessions of the SuperSports 600cc class on Friday, was in acute pain after the session.

"It was most unfortunate that my debut in the 600cc class was a non-starter. I was in severe pain after participating in the three Free Practice sessions on Friday following which we decided to skip the rest of the weekend rather than risk aggravating the injury," Sarath said in a statement.

"Hopefully, I will be fit and ready for the third round at Suzuka in Japan next month (June 4-5)," the 23-year old added.

Ramji Govindarajan, Managing Director, Ten10 Racing, said, "As we all know, Sarath is still recovering from his knee injury and FP3 (Free Practice-3) took a toll on his knee and he was in pain. So the team decided to run him only for five laps.

"The grid a tough one, but we as a team and manager are not putting any pressure on him to perform. We want him to recover and learn the nuances of riding a 600cc motorcycle step by step.

"Sarath has been working hard on it despite being in pain and is not able to ride through left corner or right to left quick transition turns. We are hoping that he would have fully recovered from the injury for the next round in Japan," Govindarajan added.