Rivera rallies to claim ROK Novice crown

MANILA, Philippines - Estefano Rivera bagged the Rookie of the Year Novice crown after finishing sixth in the kickoff leg of the Magnolia Purewater Karting Super Series at the Carmona Race Track recently.

Moving up to a higher class, the 12-year-old Rivera, of PCR-Tough Gear Racing- Fern C, battled two-time champion Stefano Marcelo in a close fight in the early going, posting the second best time of 43.921 seconds behind Marcelo’s 43.491 in the qualifying time trials. He consistently finished second in the qualifying heat.

But the graduating Jasms-Manila student dropped to fourth in the pre-final and wound up sixth in the final race.

However, that was enough to net him the ROK Novice honors with a 14-minute and 50.047-second clocking in the 20-lap race or 2.927 seconds ahead of Gab Dacasin.

Cebuano Jette Calderon finished third while Christian Villeneuve of Maranello-Marcelo Racing and Archim Lagman landed fourth and fifth, respectively, in the event sanctioned by the Automobile Association Philippines and sponsored by Magnolia Purewater, San Miguel Corp., Petron Corp., Denso Iridium Power, Motorstar and Aeromed.

Rivera, backed up by the Tyson Sy Foundation Inc., also finished third in the ROK Junior class behind champion Franco Reyes of Jet Racing and runner-up Joey Orduna of Ready2Race - the reigning Karter of the Year.

“It’s a good start though, and a very good learning experience for me. I still need to learn more techniques and hopefully I’ll do better in the coming races,” said Rivera.