11-year-old McLelland shines in karting opener

MANILA, Philippines - A more daring Sean Draeco Valbuena McLelland further showed his potentials as a young future champ with two podium finishes recently in the kickoff of the 2013 Coca-Cola Karting Super Series at the Carmona Racetrack.

The 11-year-old McLelland, a student of The Seed Montessori in Quezon City, showed big improvement from last year as he captured third place honors in the Formula Cadet Expert class and finished fourth in the Mini-ROK division

Since he got under the wings of  Sonny and RR Suba as coaches and engine  tuners, Draeco became more confident with his driving style that he even posted the fastest 49.880 seconds in the time trials or 0.25 of a second faster than Mini-ROK defending champion Flynn Jackes.

In the Formula Cadet Expert division, he rallied from a starting ninth in the final race as he overtook one karter after another to move up fourth. He  later gave top guns Jackes and last year’s Formula Cadet Novice champion Jose Luigi Lachica a close fight in the dying laps before winding up third.

Even in the Sorteo Grand Prix last month, McLelland’s improvement was already noticed as he copped fifth place in the Formula Cadet Expert and fourth place in the Mini-ROK division.