Pazcoguin aims to keep kart lead

Making it as the top Filipino finisher in the junior division of the Asian Karting Open two weeks ago provided Jet Racing’s Renz Pazcoguin with the needed morale boost to face the challenge in the fifth leg of the 2008 Shell Helix Karting Super Series tomorrow at the Enchanted Kingdom E-Kart Trak in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

The 13-year-old Pazcoguin, a Grade 8 student of La Salle-Antipolo, is aiming to preserve his lead in the ROK Junior Novice division through the support of Val&Bel Trading, VB Farms, CriSabel, MBQ Trading, Patrice Light, Oz Racing, Atty. Jun Romero, Fiscal Nestor Gapusan, Andersen Tuana and Industria.    

Renz finished second to highly favored Bryan Mehta of Malaysia in the combined junior final race of the Asian karting event, beating the likes of champion karters Natasha Seatter of Malaysia, Sandy Stuvik of Thailand, Hongkong’s Matthew Solomon and promising Indonesian ace Senna Sulaiman Noor.

He rose to the occasion for Jet Racing when skipper Javi Benitez figured in an incident. From there, Pazcoguin staged a fiery rally that pulled him up to second and finished just 1.126 seconds behind Mehta.

The feat installed him in solo lead of the ROK Junior Novice class with 248 points or just an 11-point margin over erstwhile leader Joey Orduna who slipped to second with 237.