Race Results | Malaysia Championship Standings | Asia Championship Standings
Presley Martono, Silvano Christian, Senna SN, and Arsh Johany won the main categories at RMC Asia Round 3 held at the Sepang International Karting Circuit on the 24th-25th of May. The track remained dry and scorching hot throughout the meeting.
Senna SN had a battle on his hands to win the DD2 final. Having dropped down the order at the start he made his way up to challenge Melvin Moh for the lead, but the move resulted in contact between the two forcing Melvin to pit and Senna to drop back a few places. Both drivers blamed each other for the incident. “I knew Senna was going to be faster than me at the early part of the race because we had setup our kart to work later in the race, but I couldn’t avoid contact when he dove it.” Melvin’s comments on pace were backed up by his fastest lap after he had pit for repairs. Senna felt that he got alongside far enough but Melvin turned in on him. Without video to review it’s impossible to say who was at fault, but it’s clear that the rivalry will carry on to future rounds.
Senna fought back and got back past the top 3, overtaking Arnuparp Arphasat for the lead after working his way past James Veerapen. Veerapen finished the race in 2nd just ahead of Arphasat, with a fastest lap time better than the winner’s.
Presley Martono was busy with an exam on friday so he only showed up to Sepang on Saturday. The lack of practice didn’t slow him down any as he put in a dominant performance in the Junior final at RMC Asia Round 3. It wasn’t quite as easy as that however as he had to battle up from 8th place in qualifying. “I knew we were in good shape for the pre-final because I saw Kane’s tyres after heat 2 and they were in bad shape compared to mine.” Early pace-setter (pole position and heat 1 & 2 wins ) had to settle for 7th in the final after 2nd to Martono in the pre-final. David Sitanala drove a solid race to finish the final in 2nd ahead of Barrichello Noor who completed an Indonesia 1-2-3. It wasn’t all bad news for Shepherd however as his strong performance catapulted him into the championship lead as Jakkarin Sirinonthanawech’s 13th in the pre-final and 8th cost him valuable points and dropped him to 2nd in the standings.
Silvano Christian cranked it up for the final of the Senior category taking the lead at the start from 2nd on the grid and holding it to the end of the race for victory. Pole sitter and championship leader Calvin Wong dropped to 4th at the start and was too far behind Silvano once he made it up to 2nd to pose any real threat to the leader. The two drivers set an almost identical pace, and ended the race separated by just over one second, with Lee Wai Cong a further 1.5 seconds behind Wong. Silvano’s win moved him up to third in the standings while Calvin Wong further extended his championship lead ahead of Lee Wai Cong to 14 points, but with 3 rounds remaining the battle is far from over.
Arsh Johany headed a close IS Racing 1-2-3 in MicroMax. He won the race ahead of Muhammad Sidqi and Putera Adam Halim. The first non-IS driver was Alex Brown of Seven Racing in 4th place. The order for the top 4 remained the same as the finishing order for the pre-final, with Timothy Wijaya creating the first change in the standings with his 5th place after 7th in the pre-final. For Muhammad Sidqi round 3 was his first non-win, but a solid 2nd place ensured that he kept the championship lead ahead of teammate Arsh Johany.
The 4th round will be held on the 16th-17th of August at Sepang International Karting Circuit.
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.”
