MANILA, Philippines — Kaito Tsukada used his outstanding experience in the highest levels of Japanese karting to overwhelm the opposition in the third leg of the Asian Karting Open Championships at the Clark International Speedway track in Pampanga over the weekend.
The 16-year-old prodigy from Tokyo swept all three 10-lap qualifying heats around the sleek 1.2-kilometer kart circuit before besting China’s Yan Liang by 4.235 seconds in the 24-lap finals with a time of 19 minutes, 14.504 seconds.
Tsukada, fresh off a runner-up finish in a recent leg of the 2018 All-Japan Kart Championships, pooled a maximum 70 points, never yielding pole spot all weekend long in the absence of erstwhile series leader Eduardo “EJ” Coseteng and fellow top Filipino hope Jacob Ang.
Heading into the fourth and final leg of the annual competition sponsored by San Miguel Corp. and Petron, Tsukada zoomed into the overall lead of the Formula 125 Senior Open and X30 Senior classes with 170 points, 50 clear of Liang, the runner-up in all four races.
Liang compensated for a slightly inferior power plant with his nifty passing skill and settled for the ROK GP Senior title with his version of a four-race sweep over Filipinos Karl Wilhelm, Anthony Baisa and Arvin Drueco.
Singapore’s Kelvin Yong Chern Long topped the Formula 125 Master Open class over Baisa and Drueco.
Another Singaporean, Nikhil Kalash Bohra, timed 16:20.430 to pip Bianca Bustamante by 27th of a second in the 20-lap finals of the Formula 125 Junior Open class. Bohra, however, managed only to match the 58-point haul for the leg by the Filipina pre-race favorite, with Miguel Joseph Quinones coming in third with 40.
The 14-year-old Bustamante, winner of the first and third qualifying heats worth a combined 20 points, continued to pace the division, though, as well as the X30 Junior class with identical 196 points.
Coseteng was stuck in a separate competition in Italy and failed to add to his tally in the Asian series with a third-best 118 points. Ang, the opening leg winner in Macau, gave the event a miss due to a previous commitment and was mired in fifth spot with 65, a rung lower than Britain’s Reece Ushijima.
Wilhelm was the best-placed Filipino in the Formula 125 Senior Open race, pipping the Singaporean Yong for third place in 19:36.399. followed by Dylan Sy (fifth) and Drueco (seventh). Japan’s Takeharu Nakamori came in sixth.