Benitez raises RP flag in Asian karting

Javi Benitez unveiled a heroic act of rising to the call of the national flag when he captured the Junior ROK crown against talented and more experienced foreigners recently in the second leg of the prestigious 2006 Asian Karting Open Championship at the Carmona Circuit Philippines.

It was yet his biggest karting victory for the young Benitez, who swept all of Saturday’s three qualifying heats, since starting with the sport two years back. He admits the pivotal help of his good friend John Alvarez of the Cebu Racing Group was a major factor in winning the crown. 

The two set aside their archrivalry in the said division in the name of national pride against Indonesian top gun Rio Haryanto and Thailand’s Master Tenart Sathienthirakul.

"I managed to pull away because John (Alvarez) was distracting the foreign drivers," said Xavier School 6th-grader Benitez, who’s backed by Bingo Bonanza Corporation, Henry Sy, Jr of SM companies and Willy Ocier of Pacific Online Systems Corporation and Belle Corporation.

"We told ourselves that it doesn’t matter who wins, what matters for us is giving glory to our country," Alvarez added.

Both Haryanto and Sathienthirakul only showed their true form on the final day as they wrested the 1-2 positions, respectively, in the morning pre-final heat and dominated the early stages of the final race just inches ahead of Benitez and Alvarez in the afternoon.

While the two were dicing for the pole, Benitez found the open door for a decisive dive to grab the lead on the sixth lap.  

Haryanto, who had been racing in the Asian Karting Open for the past three years, tried to regain his post but got his hands full keeping his ground against Alvarez who persistently challenged Haryanto for the No.2 spot while blocking Sathienthirakul’s path.

The crowd howled cheers of support for Benitez and Alvarez as well to keep on going as Haryanto and Sathienthirakul still refused to give up and continued to threaten Benitez.

But his masterful defenseive driving preserved his grip of the top spot as Benitez got loud applause when he took the checkered flag.

He wrapped up the 18-lap race in 12:53.830 as he checked in 2.307 seconds ahead of Haryanto.  Alvarez took third place honors just fractions of a second ahead of Sathienthirakul.