Turalba revs up for Asian karting title

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino karters clash with the top foreign bets in the region as action in the 2009 Asian Karting Open Championship gets going today at the S.C. Motorsport Circuit in Saraburi, Thailand.

Juha Turalba of Ready2Race, who leads the Formula 125 Open Seniors with 95 points, goes for the Asian Karting crown as he tries to become the fourth Filipino karting champion after Michele Bumgarner, who reigned for three years, Marlon Stockinger and Stefano Marcelo.

But out to foil the 15-year-old Turalba’s bid are defending champion Tin Sritrai, Pasin Lathouras and Jonathan Reveille.

Sritrai is in second with 81 points while Lathouras is in third with 47. 

Meanwhile, the other top foreign karters seeing action in the event sanctioned by the CIK/FIA and RAAT are Christian Villanueve who finished fourth in Macau, Garry Mumford in the Veteran Class, Perdana Putra Minang and Yasuo Senna Iriawan of Red and White Racing, Perry and Presley Martomo, Mohamad Sharif Raharjo and Rahul Raj Mayer.

Aside from Turalba, the other Filipino title hopefuls are Roby Benito of Ready2Race in the Formula 125 Open Junior; Christian Gaddi and Marino Sato in the Mini-ROK; Archim Lorenz Lagman and John Castelar in the Yamaha Junior Indy Villalon of AUTS Racing and Oliver Aquino of Alessandra Racing in the Yamaha Cup Senior.

Leading the title race in the other classes are Indonesian Denzel Sofyan who will be facing lone RP winner Jette Calderon and Singaporean Anderson Martomo in the ROK Junior division; John Zhang of Singapore who will be tangling against RP’s RG Romero and Macau’s Paulo Batalha in the ROK Senior, Indonesians Ryan Anthony Monoarfa and Victor Wijaya Susilo who will be going up against Mumford in the Rotax Max Senior; Indonesian Andhika Sasabone up against Macau’s Andy Chang Wing Chung and Yasuo Iriawan in the Rotax Max Junior; and Malaysian Gary Mumford against Hongkong’s Tommy Tang Chi Ming in the Rotax Max Veteran.

The event is organized by Grand Prix International Co., Ltd. (GPI Motorsport) and Kart Association of Thailand (KAT), and powered by Red White Racing of Indonesia under Managing Director Stanley Iriawan, The Department of Tourism through Assec. Cynthia Carreon-Norton, and the Philippine Sports Commission.