Young Aguilar shines in Asian karting

The Bosch Intelco Racing Team put up a strong show behind Marty Aguilar and JP Carino against tough foreign rivals recently in the 2004 Casino Filipino- Shell Asian Karting Open Championship at the Carmona Circuit Philippines.

Only 13, Aguilar delivered the strongest finish for the Bosch-Intelco team sponsored by Bosch, Accel Sportswear, Arrow Karts, PR Autosport, Samsung and Castrol as he emerged as the top Filipino finisher in the highly exciting Rotax Max Juniors class where he checked in a close second behind India’s Armaan Ebrahim.

Aguilar’s impressive drew loud cheers of support from the pro-Filipino crowd. He actually started fifth but found his way to grab the pole position with three laps to go. But Ebrahim’s experience was too much for the young driver as he regained the lead in the final two laps all the way to the chequered flag.

Cariño, on the other hand, led the way in the Rotax Senior class finishing third just in front of Malaysian Formula BMW driver James Veerapan.

Even Cariño’s wingmen Archie Rubio and Daniel Cleak delivered well, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively, in the tough 21-man field in the Rotax Senior class.

Cleak should have made it fourth if not for a mistake in the last few laps that allowed Veerapan to overtake him.

All four Bosch-Intelco drivers topped their respective classes during the timed practice sessions but problems hounded them as too much rubber laid down on the track due to the number of competitors made it hard for the drivers to set-up their chassis for qualifying heats where Aguilar qualified third in the Rotax Juniors class and while Carino, Rubio and Cleak slipped to fifth, seventh, and 11th in the seniors class.

Despite going up against the better "cream of the crop" from Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Hongkong, and Singapore this year, the team surpassed their stint in 2003 edition of Asian karting.

"Overall, I should say it was indeed a successful stint for the Bosch Intelco team considering the limited resources we had and yet achieved these feats going up against the best karters and their best machines in the Asian region," said Carino, the team skipper.

"We never thought we could get this far," Carino admitted. "But fighting for the Philippine flag ruled in our hearts, and we’re happy we delivered the goods for the country."

The next rounds of the AKOC will be held at India, Indonesia, and Macau being one of the support races of the prestigous 51st Macau grand Prix.