MANILA, Philippines - Misfortunes crushed the heavyweights but comebacking Sacha Feliciano, Carl Pollington and Matthew Chan provided enough sparkle for Fern-C Racing in a roaring start of the 2011 Petron Karting Super Series at the Carmona Circuit Philippines.
Feliciano and Pollington swept their respective classes while Chan bagged the runner-up trophy in the ROK Novice class over tough rivals with the big support of Placewell International Services Corp., Getaway Tours Int’l. Inc., Sanyoseiki Stainless Steel Corp. and Cookbook Kitchen at Eastwood City.
Feliciano, running with the fastest time of 49.386, controlled the tempo all the way in 16 minutes, 32.639 seconds or 5.390 seconds ahead to claim the Formula SL Novice crown. Hardly showing rust following a dislocated arm that sidelined her last October, she upstaged all the other Expert karters in the 20-lap combined race.
Pollington likewise was unstoppable as he pulled ahead early, finishing the race in 12:35.232, at least 49 seconds ahead of the others.
Chan was a big revelation on his first official ROK Novice race in the national series, as he checked in ahead of the more experienced ROK senior and junior rivals in clinching the runner-up trophy.
Also delivering podium honors for Fern-C Racing were ROK Junior fourth placer Vrei-Ar Suba and Formula SL Novice fifth placer Aira Medrano - bringing the team’s trophy haul to five.
The top guns, however, were a big disappointment. VJ and Vrei-Ar Suba, as well as Estefano Rivera, were hot on the trail in the qualifying heat until the unexpected happened in the pre-final.
Rivera, surging from the uphill curve, failed to notice the stalled Juha Turalba and figured in a collision with the latter. That threw him six feet high and he landed on VJ Suba with Vrei-Ar right behind. Vrei-Ar managed to get back on the race unlike VJ and Rivera, whose chassis were heavily damaged.
Both VJ and Rivera managed to run in the final race but could do only so much with their damaged machines.