K-Lite Karting for Cancer’s nail-biting finish

While The Philippine STAR sent out a formidable team at the recently concluded K-Lite Karting for Cancer event, some technical problems almost blew the team’s chances at a podium finish. Fortunately, a resilient and consistent effort by the entire team was good enough to salvage third place — despite some very tough competition.

The team, which was composed of Business Motoring contributors Lester Dizon, Manny de los Reyes, James Deakin, Wheels Monthly project manager Jeff Reyes, guest driver Leana Farrales (who sat in for contributor Andy Leuterio) as drivers and this writer as team manager, experienced some technical difficulty when Deakin was t-boned twice during a particularly unlucky run. With the seat of the team’s kart seat unhinged as a result of the twin crashes, a second place standing was quickly lost, forcing the team to sacrifice at least a lap in the two-hour endurance run. By the time Team Philippine STAR got back on track, its standing stood at a woeful seventh place. Fortunately, Reyes’ inspired driving resulted in a nail-biting last turn grab of the third place spot — which resulted in a podium finish for the hard luck team.

K-Lite will thus donate Team Philippine STAR’s winning pot to East Avenue Medical Center Gynecological Cancer patients. Finishing atop the podium before Team Philippine STAR were Team Stoplight TV (Andrew Chebat, Eggay Quesada, Glosi Mendoza, Love-Love Tioseco, Danby Yaptinchay) at first place and Team Manila Bulletin/Manila Times (Aris Ilagan, Anjo Perez, Brian Afuang, Luigi Perez) at second.