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Marcelo arrives, drives and then sweeps Cebu race
Written by staff   
Wednesday, 07 May 2008 22:11

Defending champion Stefano Marcelo of Maranello-San Miguel Corp.-Marcelo Racing is not the arrive-and-drive type of competitor but he did it for once—with much pizzazz—for his third-straight sweep of the recent 2008 Shell Karting Super Series at the Cebu Kart Zone in Cebu City. Cebuano race engineer Jed Neri and the crew of the Marcelo Racing Team set the stage for Marcelo’s conquest of the Cebu track despite the fact that they arrived only two days before the race.

The 15-year-old Marcelo barely had enough time for practice. He arrived only on Saturday because he still had to take his examinations in school.

Marcelo finished second to Javi Benitez in the qualifying time trials, but got his groove going and wrested the lead from Benitez in the second lap.  

And, despite ignition problems, Marcelo won the hearts of the big Cebuano crowd as he coasted to victory in Heat 1 over a stubborn Vencer John Suba.

Then everything went smoothly for Marcelo in the last two races where he led wire-to-wire, beating Juha Turalba of R2R-Tuason Racing and Cebu’s Patrick Gandionco.

With the triumph, Marcelo fortified his grip of the solo leadership to stay on course for a back-to-back Karter of the Year award.

“It was a bit tough to arrive and drive. The Cebu track is notorious for its changing track conditions and I was also worried that the talented Cebuano karters would dominate,” said Marcelo.  

“But I’m happy everything went smooth for us, except for the ignition problem that kept cutting the revs to 10,000 instead of the usual 13,400 rpm in Race 1.  And I’m thankful that the Marcelo Racing crew solved the problem straight away,” he added.

Marcelo had to forgo stints in Belgium and the World Super Karting European Series in Italy this month because of his pressing schedule in school. He has instead set his sight on the 2008 Asian Karting Open Championship on June 28 and 29 in Macau.

His father John Marcelo and crew will fly to Macau ahead of Marcelo to set up the kart. The young Marcelo will fly to Macau Saturday morning and will have to head straight to the qualifying race.

“The exams are my priorities for now as a student [of the Britiah School Manila]. I’m looking forward to a back-to-back Asian Karting championship.  Both the Belgium and Italian races should have been good tune-ups for the coming Asian Karting kickoff in Macau where I’m also planning to race against the world’s best in the KF1 Championship.”

“But at least I’ll get a good rest, do adjustments on the kart and work on other aspects where I have to improve on,” he said.
 
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