MKC 2022 Round 3 Race Report
After a long two-month break, Malaysia Karting Championship (MKC) and IAME Series Asia (ISA) are back in action! With just over 41 racers in action for Round 3, one can assume that karting in South East Asia is slowly picking up again. This time around, MKC and ISA were greeted by drivers from India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Thailand to race with the local Malaysians in a thrilling weekend that was filled with extreme sunshine and the inevitable random thunderstorm.
In the Cadet category, it was Travis Teoh who managed to maintain his grip on the leader board. After multiple starts in the final, Zarief Rayqal lost out on his usual second place behind Travis to Conrad Garrow. Conrad stuck behind Travis and followed him all the way home to take second place finishing just 0.687 seconds behind the race winner. Zarief, who is as fast as Travis on his day, did not manage to catch up to Conrad and Travis and eventually lost out on any slipstream available. Meanwhile, Joshua Walker and Max Wiloughby, both from Singapore, had a dramatic finale as they battled it out throughout the race. They swapped positions multiple times and they kept the full capacity crowd entertained right to the end.
In the Junior category, Katrina Ee continued her dominant display of speed and consistency. After a fairly clean start in the final with all eleven drivers surviving the first corner, Katrina initiated her game plan and set the fastest lap after fastest lap with her quickest coming in on lap 8 out of 15 with a 50.745s. She left behind Chanoknan Veeratacha and Saw Guan Xian fight it out for second and third place. Which they did. After a thrilling battle of determination and perseverance, Chanoknan finished the race just under a second ahead of Guan Xian. However, the ‘photo finish’ prize goes to Mohamand Anaqi and Adhithya Arvind who finished the race 0.135s off each other. Jacob Lauter, last round’s final winner, suffered a setback when he and Hendra Putra collided after the start and dropped out of contention. There were also some fearsome battles between Jacob Brown and Aldrin Foo Cabiles but it was Jacob who ultimately won that duel.
In the Senior category, Akash Neil Nandy sealed the win after a dramatic final. Throughout most of the race, Akash was fending off Raja Ariff Bin Raja Azmi who also set the fastest lap of the final with a 49.934s. It was only when Ariff had a slight coming together with Suriyavarathan Karthikeyan from India two thirds into the race that things started to go sideways for the young Malaysian who eventually finished in 10th place. The real gainer was Muhammad Ibrahim from India who at one point was running in fourth but benefited from all the action between Ariff and Suriya. Aydan Khaliq, after his stellar qualifying performance only managed 6th place after fending off Kabir Anurag from Singapore who himself drove well considering his 11th place starting position. In the X30 Senior Rookie category, it was Alif Shawqi, Aymaan Xavier Erba, and Azriel Azhar who took home first, second, and third respectively.
In the Masters category, it was Mohd Jasa (Accer) who drove home with the win. After an incident-filled start, with drivers running four-wide into Turn 1 at one point, Chew Chen Yee (Sherwin), who is a potential race-winning driver, was the first casualty of the evening with his kart spinning around amidst the calamity in the beginning. The second (and third) casualty of the evening was Luke Armstrong and Alpesh Kumar Patel both hailing from Singapore. After a bullish charge by the duo to chase down Accer, Luke managed to put himself in contention for the race win with Alpesh trailing to pick up the pieces, if any. However, it was not meant to be as Accer, Luke, and Alpesh had an unusual coming together halfway through the circuit. All three drivers spun uncontrollably towards the side barrier but it was only Accer who survived and managed to continue as Luke and Alpesh made contact with the barrier ending their race. Thankfully, both drivers escaped without any major injuries. Lee Lung Nien benefited from all the drama to drive home with 2nd place. But the prize for ‘Best Move Of The Day’ goes to Thiru Kumaran, who finished in 3rd place, with his double overtake lunge on Al Farouk and Marcelo Cosas at the beginning of the last lap. It was an unexpected yet bold move by the Malaysian who proved his tenacity despite having a difficult race weekend.
Overall, it was a thrilling weekend for motorsports in Malaysia, especially the four-wheeled kind. There was racing at the Sepang main circuit, where many former MKC and ISA karters were participating and dominating, and at the karting circuit future racers were being born. Definitely a great day for any motorsport fan. MKC and ISA would like to thank all its sponsors, drivers, teams, officials, and fans of karting for the great turnout at Round 3.
See you at Round 4, Perlis!
