RP karters shine in Asian Open kickoff

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines pulled an impressive performance reaping three titles, two runners-up and a third place finish against Asia’s best in the kickoff of the 2009 Asian Karting Open Championship recently at the Kartodromo de Coloane Circuit in Macau.

Jet Racing’s Franco Victor Reyes, Marino Sato and PCR-Tough Gear’s Archim Lorenz Lagman powered the big wins for the RP Karting Team whose stint here was supported by the Department of Tourism and the Philippine Sports Commission.

Reyes controlled the tempo coast-to-coast to capture the Formula Open 125 Junior crown over Mohammad Sharif Raharjo of Indonesia, third placer Rahul Raj Mayer of Malaysia and the Philippines’ Joey Orduna of Ready2Race Team.Reyes completed the 18-lap race in 18 minutes and 6.923 seconds or just 1.149 seconds ahead of Raharjo despite the heavy rains that made the race even tougher for the participants.

Sato swept both the Pre-Final and Final race, as he wrapped up the 18-lap race in 16:13.416 or just 0.095 of a second ahead of Hugo Bradleysendjaja for the Mini-ROK plum.

Lagman, on the other hand, topped the Yamaha Cup Junior division against eight other karters with a time of 16:10.878 with Gab Dacasin claiming the runner-up honors.

Reigning Asian ROK Senior champion Juha Turalba of Ready2Race likewise unveiled a good job putting up a tough fight against defending Asian Karting Open champ Tin Sritrai of Thailand before winding up as the Formula 125 Open Senior runner-up just 0.416 of a second behind Sritrai.

Another Jet Racing karter Christian Gaddi took third place in the Mini-ROK division.

The kickoff leg, however, saw the return of Indonesia back as a power in Asian Karting as it emerged the winningest team clinching four of the 10 titles at stake behind Presley Martomo in the Cadet 60 class, Denzel Sofyan in the ROK Junior, Andhika Sasabone in the Rotax Max Junior and Victor Wijaya Susilo in the Rotax Max Senior class.

With that, an intense rivalry between the Filipinos and the Indonesians looms as the Philippines hosts the second leg on July 18-19 at the Carmona Circuit Philippines.

The other wins were bagged by Singapore’s John Zhang in the ROK Senior class and Hongkong’s Tommy Tang Chi Ming in the Rotax Max Veteran division.

For details, interested parties may contact Carmona Circuit Philippines c/o Rose Feria at 817-2241.