The 3rd round of the Rotax Max Challenge Asia Championship was held at the Speedway PLUS circuit last weekend in conjunction with the 4th round of the Rotax Max Challenge Malaysia Championship.
In the Senior category Mikko Nassi on his new Intrepid Cruiser kart found the sweet-spot with his setup and after coming from mid-pack in the pre-final to take the win he was untouchable in the final taking a lights-to-flag victory and building his lead to almost 9 seconds at the finish line. Mikko couldn’t have been more pleased with the weekend, “It was a great weekend with everything going perfectly other than an engine problem in heat 2 which meant I started the pre-final in 7th place.”
While there was no battle for the lead James Lee and Fei Hoong were engaged in an extremely close battle for 2nd place changing positions several times during the race with some breathtaking overtaking moves. James Lee eventually took 2nd place and still has a comfortable lead in the Malaysian championship while Fei Hoong has had his lead in the Asian championship cut down to just 5 points heading into the final points-scoring round next month. An ever-improving Aaron Mumford took 4th in the race followed by Rohairijaz in 5th.
In the Juniors Muhammad Nabil continued his impressive form this year taking the pre-final honors after a close race with Ryan Ritchie. Nabil was then able to find a bit more pace to take a more comfortable win in the Final, once again followed by Ritchie. The two drivers are in the same positions in the championships as they finished here, and following them in 3rd in the race as well as in the championship was Hasif Nor Azmi. The championship is now fairly clear-cut however a DNF could still spell disaster for Nabil, so it isn’t over yet! Siti Shahkirah put in an impressive performance taking 4th place in the final ahead of Rahul Raj Mayer and Calvin Seibl.
The Masters category was a fight to the finish between Harry Anthony and John King, with Anthony eventually taking the chequered flag first. Championship leader Ray Kong finished in 3rd, with Rolf Seibl in 4th and Mitsuru Ito in 5th.
In MicroMax Indian driver Arjun Maini and Singapore-based German driver Brendan Seibl put on a show for the crowd with the race only being decided on the final lap! Maini made a last-lap move stick in order to take the win after looking like he was out of touch for several laps, proving that a race is never over until you’ve crossed the line. All weekend long the two drivers provided great racing with they fastest laps always being within a few hundreths in every heat.
In Cadets Andhika Sasabone drove an inspired race to take a comfortable win ahead of Indra Muzaffar who was very closely follwed by Timothy Yeo in 3rd.