MANILA, Philippines - Barely two weeks after his victory in the national championships, Jet Racing-Industria stalwart Franco Victor Puey Reyes went back to Carmona Circuit to claim the junior KF3 title in the recently concluded Round 5 of the Pagcor KF Series.
The graduating student from the Ateneo Grade School, powered by Industria Productions, Bingo Bonanza, Simon Racing, EIKO Motorsports, and Merlin Engines, posted the fastest lap time in the time trials, setting a new track record in Carmona of 43.308 for the junior class and firmly establishing his growing reputation as the hottest junior karter in the country today.
However, he faltered during the start of the pre-final, dropping him to fifth in the opening laps. But by midrace, he was already back in a fighting third place position and maintained this all the way to the flag behind Indonesian Senna Iriawan and compatriot Tonyo Carcel.
Still hobbled by a bad start, Reyes started the 15-lap final behind the trio of Senna, Sato and Carcel. However, when his kart set-up kicked in by the fifth lap, Reyes was already on Senna’s tail hounding him all the way to the last lap of the race, then took a dive on the inside line of the Indonesian race leader in the big hairpin with 200 meters to go in the race.
The ensuing drag race between the two drivers down the notorious “Heavenly” corner of Carmona saw Reyes winning the battle of nerves as he stuck it into the hairpin and never gave up the line going out of the exit on his way to the checkered flag.
He finished in 10:51.998, just .191 of a second ahead of the Indonesian driver.
“We ran a good tactical race. If I diced with Senna from the start, Sato and the others could have easily caught up with us. My dad told me to stick to our game plan, push Senna to his limits, but not engage him in a seesaw battle, so we could pull away from the pack,” said Reyes. “My patience paid off, as I saw Senna committing mistakes towards the latter stages of the race when I pressured him in the inside corners. When he went a little wide in the big loop, that was it.”
Reyes is scheduled to compete on April 3-4 in the Thailand Open Kart Prix at the challenging Bira Circuit, in Pattaya,.