The CIK-FIA World Cup for Super KF and KF1, as well as the Asia-Pacific KF2 championship will be held this weekend at the Suzuka Karting Circuit in Japan. There are a lot of karters familiar to the South-East Asian kart racing scene taking part in the KF2 event.
It’s not immediately clear by looking at the entry list who these karters are because most are using racing licenses from Japan or Italy.
Mitchell Gilbert, an Australian that has raced a lot in Malaysia will be taking part with the factory Kosmic kart team, while Stefano Marcelo from the Phlippines is with TonyKart. Both these guys are driving with Italian racing licenses now.
Pasin Lathoras will be representing Thailand on his Maddox kart with the only Thai entrant – Simon Racing. Also from Thailand, Nanin Indra Payoong will be racing on a TonyKart with Japanese team Thirty’s Racing using a Tony Kart. Finally also on a Japanese license will be Malaysian driver Bryan Mehta who recently signed a 3-year deal with Birel Pacific. He has been really impressive in Japanese KF2 races, but with grids of 10-15 drivers at the Japanese events this race will be Bryan’s first major KF2 challenge.
It’s interesting to note that of the 41 entries, only 8 drivers are going to be on Bridgestone tyres while the rest will have Dunlops. Nanin is the only one of the SEA-contingent that will be on Bridgestone.
Some of big names to watch out for in the KF2 category will be current WSK leader Matteo Vigano (Birel / Parilla / Dunlop), and other WSK front runners such as Brandon Maisano (Intrepid / TM / Dunlop), Ben Cooper (Tony Kart / Vortex / Dunlop). Russin driver Maxim Zimin (FA Kart / Vortex / Dunlop), a few Italians, and of course a few from the large field of Japanese drivers should be at the front as well.
For Super KF there is a promising entry list with a total of 42 drivers with close to half of them from Japan. Most of the main factory teams have a presence on the grid with a few world champions in the mix.
Entry lists, schedule, live timing and results are all available on the event page on cikfia.com