The Malaysian Rotax Invitational Race 2015 took place at the Sepang International Karting Circuit on the 24th-25th of January. The 2015 edition of the Invitational event marked the 6th running of the event. The event’s first edition was held in November but later events moved to a January date and it has since grown to a prestigious one-off event and serves as a great start to the kart racing season in the South-East Asian region.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.kartingasia.com/2015/rotax-invitational-malaysia-race-report-pictures/
BRP presented their new series of engines to replace the current Rotax Max Series of engines. The series is an evolution of the current engines, with updates designed to increase user friendliness and ease the tuning aspect, as well as boosting the reliability and service intervals of certain components.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.kartingasia.com/2014/rotax-announces-evo-engine-series/
Today was the final few practice sessions for all drivers (except for the MicroMax drivers who only started their program today with their kart raffle), and once the practice was over a single qualifying session for each category took place.
With weather services predicting rain for all remaining days of the Grand Finals (at between 70% and 90% probability), the order might change quite significantly.
Lithuanian driver Rokas Baciuska (156) grabbed pole in the Junior category by a fairly comfortable margin of 0.155 ahead of Russian Denis Mavlanov. None of the drivers from the Rotax Asia Challenge had much success, with David Sitanala 31st in his group and Veravich Wongsanganan in 32nd, and RMC Asia champion Kane Shepherd 30th in his group. Malaysian driver Luqman Hakim registered 26th in his group and is looking to move up the field in all his heats to give him a chance of making the final stages.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.kartingasia.com/2014/grand-finals-qualifying-day/
The opening day of track action was on Tuesday 25th of November, with each category getting 3 practice session each (15+10+10 minutes). The previous day was dedicated to kart raffles, tool & equipment allocation and drivers and mechanics preparing their karts for the challenge ahead.
A stark contrast in testing methodology was apparent with some drivers that had made the trip to the circuit in the past month or two focusing on making quick setup changes after short stints on track, and most of the field mainly focused on learning the track and staying on track for the majority of the sessions.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.kartingasia.com/2014/grand-finals-day-1-quick-report-pictures/
Presley Martono has had undoubtedly two of his most memorable race weekends over the past 2 weekends. First he was at the Rotax International Open in Zuera, where a loose engine mount resulting in a dropped chain and DNF while battling for the lead in the pre-final looked to have ruined his chances of a good finish, but from 32nd on the grid he powered through to battle for the win, with 3rd place at the finish! “If there was one more corner I could have gone for the win.”
From the Rotax International Open Martono hopped on over to Italy for the WSK Final Cup to race in the KF-Junior category, and boosted by his incredible drive the weekend before he went from 3rd on the grid to take an incredible win with a 6 second margin over 2nd placed driver Logan Sargeant.
Watch the Rotax International Open video below. “He’s (Martono) absolutely flying! 32nd to 3rd, fantastic.”
Permanent link to this article: http://www.kartingasia.com/2014/indonesian-presley-martono-at-the-top-of-international-karting/
SKC Round 4 Cadet Formation Lap - © Phil Askey
The 4th round of the Singapore Karting Championship was held at Kartright Speedway last weekend. The entries in most categories struggled as the Senior/Junior/Senior Master/Master Plus categories only attracted a combined total of 11 entries, but the Cadet field was strong with 10 entries on the grid. Final results below, and the full results are viewable on mylaps HERE.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.kartingasia.com/2014/singapore-karting-championship-round-4-results/