Philippine Sports News and Updates

Jakarta—Young ace karter Stefano Marcelo turned back his tough foreign rivals to capture his second straight victory in the third leg of the 2007 Asian Karting Open Championship at the Sentul International Circuit here.

With the win, the 15-year-old Marcelo grabbed the overall lead for the Asian Karting title race from Johnny Afonso of Macau and Italian Luka Ferriguti.

It was one tough journey for Marcelo, who raced with makeshift parts on his kart in the premier Formula 125 Seniors Open against a talented field of 23 drivers from nine participating countries, which only proved he can deliver with whatever equipment available to him.

Even more stunning, the Marcelo crew was surprised to see that there wasn’t any pinch bolt holding the axle of the kart after the final race.

“I’m very happy I was able to raise the Philippine flag up despite the struggles we went through. The victory more than made up for it,” said Marcelo.

“I just hope I can maintain the overall lead in the coming legs and fulfill the second of my three goals this year,” he added.

He got the pole position with just one flying lap but had to run all of Saturday’s qualifying heats as slow as possible to conserve the tires. Soon after, the Marcelo Racing crew also discovered a fractured rear brake rotor that could have spelled disaster for Marcelo.

It was a good thing though that the team secured a borrowed spare rotor from event organizer Johnny Tan, and chief engineer Jed Neri managed to adapt it into the brake system, allowing Marcelo to drive as hard as he can to move up from the back of the pack.

The crowd cheered with the amazing spectacle of seeing Marcelo overtake one driver after another from the tailend 23rd place until he got into the ninth position. Unfortunately, he collided with an Indonesian karter that sent him airborne, got hit by incoming drivers upon landing and fell back to 11th place.

Though badly shaken by the incident that left him with a damaged front and a bent rear axle, Marcelo managed to regain his composure and mustered everything he got to move up again and finish a respectable fifth in the pre-final event.

The Marcelo Racing crew quickly worked on the necessary repairs and adjustments to give Marcelo the needed push to jump into fourth spot on the first lap. Continuing with his aggressive maneuvers, he already grabbed the overall lead on the fifth lap and controlled the tempo from thereon.

The RP contingent jumped for joy as Marcelo grabbed the checkered flag.

Source: Manila Standard Today