RaceRevo

Malaysian karting 2010 season kicks off last weekend with the Rotax Max Challenge Malaysia Round 1 at the Sepang International Karting Circuit. It runs concurrently with the Asia Max Challenge 2010.

Although Sepang have been hosting many kart races before, this event features a new challenge for the drivers as they will be driving this track anticlockwise for the first time. More than 80 drivers participated in 5 categories, Micromax, DD2, Junior, Senior, and Master/Heavyweight. While most of the drivers are Malaysian, there are some drivers from Finland, Japan, Scotland, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, India and many more, making it a very interesting lineup for the race.

The Micromax category featured 23 young talents. Luqman Hakim snatched pole position for the race, ahead of James Pull and Gezha Sudirman. But came race time it is a different story, as Gezha managed to overtake both Luqman and James to take an early lead, a lead that he never relinquished for the remainder of the race. Luqman finished 2nd and Brendan Seibl followed in 3rd.

Micromax karters always find a time to play with each other before races

Only 5 karters took part in the DD2 race. It was won by Guy Ermer of Singapore who had to fight off strong challenges from Freddy Numan Lawan. Finishing in 3rd place by some distance is Ray Kong.

In the Junior category, it was all about one name, Rahul Raj Mayer. He sets the pace for the entire weekend and blew out the rest of the field in the feature race. Rahul finished the 20 lap race in a total time of 16.47.142.  Gilbert Ang managed to finish 2nd while Freddie Ang completed the podium.

Junior competitors battling it out in a very tight race all the way until the end

Meanwhile, Kyle Blockey claimed 1st position in the Masters/Heavyweight race, resigning Terrence Chap to 2nd place. Ray Kong gets his second 3rd place finishes of the weekend.

Drivers trying to concentrate minutes before the race

The Rotax Senior category was the main attraction for this event. It is the race that the fans have been waiting for, as it pits many up and coming talents against some of the best karters in the region. It also marked the start of a duel between the 2-time Rotax Senior champion Mikko Nassi and the 2009 Rotax Junior champion, Nabil Jeffri.

Nabil, having graduated to Senior category this year, showed why he is touted as Malaysia’s most promising young driver with a fantastic performances from preliminary heats up to the pre-final race. Mikko and the rest of the karters hardly had a sniff of Nabil’s exhaust.

At the start of the final race, Nabil cruised from pole maintaining 1st position going into the first corner, leaving Andrew Tang and Johan Adzmi behind, who both managed to overtake Mikko. Mikko, now having it all to do, slowly overtook Johan and Andrew respectively. With Nabil in commanding position, Mikko pushed on very hard in an effort to catch him.

But ultimately it was to no avail as Nabil grabbed the checkered flag, 4.960 seconds ahead of Mikko. Andrew Tang managed to secure 3rd.

The next stop for the Rotax Max Challenge Malaysia is the 2nd round at the Speedway PLUS, on the 8th-9th May. Asia Max Challenge will continue at Surabaya, Indonesia on the 10th-11th April.

Here are the complete results :

Rotax Senior

Rotax Master/Heavyweight

Rotax Junior

Rotax Micromax

Rotax DD2

Photo / Editorial : Nazim Idris

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