Guidicelli rules Asian karting kickoff

KELANTAN, Malaysia — The Philippines’ Matteo Guidicelli of Team CRG-Cebu completed a masterful feat in the kickoff of the Asian Zone Open Karting Championship — "Royal Kelantan Silver Jubilee Kart Prix" at the Kota Bahru Circuit here.

Guidicelli’s feat in clinching the premiere Intercontinental Junior Championship crown via a sweep of all the five races capped a major victory for the Philippine Karting Team that bagged three of the six titles at stake.

The other two were captured by last year’s champion Michelle Bumgarner of M&M Racing in the Open Class and Marcel Thenu in the Veterans 125.

It was one tough win for Guidicelli who suffered mechanical problems that almost forced him out of the race.

After topping the pre-final heat with a fastest laptime of 47.79, Guidicelli thought everything would be smooth in the final race until the front nose cone of his kart broke on the third lap.

That caused further damage in the ensuing play as it also hit and broke the medal frame of his brake – forcing him to slow down.

Malaysian Jazeman Firhamin stuck quite close but Guidicelli’s defensive driving kept him behind the rest of the 25-lap race.

The 14-year-old Filipino-Italian kept his pace in the ensuing play and in the last five laps, Firhamin decided to let go knowing he’ll have no more chance to overtake the pole sitter.

Bumgarner, on the other hand, started third in the final heat behind frontrunning Indonesians Zahir Ali and runner-up Imran Zaharias but a twist in the final seven laps paved the way for her triumph.

She stuck close to her Indonesian rivals, clocking a laptime of 47.551 on the second lap. But on the eighth lap, Ali span out af the race and Bumgarner took the snatch to close in on Zaharias and stay away form the rest of the pack.

With seven laps to go, Bumgarner went for a decisive maneuver to snatch the pole from Zaharias and held on to it to the finish line.Thenu, for his part, pulled away from the start to rule the Veterans 125 class against Malaysian James Leong.