INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino karters clinched three titles against the region?s best in the kickoff leg of the 2009 Asian Karting Open Championship at the Kartodromo de Coloane Circuit in Macau recently.

Jet Racing?s Franco Victor Reyes, Marino Sato and PCR-Tough Gear?s Archim Lorenz Lagman posted the big wins for the RP karting team, which also posted two runners-up and one third-place finishes.

Reyes controlled the tempo coast-to-coast to win the Formula Open 125 Junior crown over Mohammad Sharif Raharjo of Indonesia, third placer Rahul Raj Mayer of Malaysia and fellow Filipino Joey Orduna of Ready2Race Team.

Reyes completed the 18-lap race in 18 minutes and 6.923 seconds, 1.149 seconds ahead of Raharjo in the race made tougher by rains.

Sato swept the Pre-Final and Final race, wrapping up the 18-lap race in 16:13.416 or just 0.095 of a second ahead of Hugo Bradleysendjaja for the Mini-ROK plum.

Lagman, on the other hand, topped the Yamaha Cup Junior division against eight rivals with a time of 16:10.878. Gab Dacasin claimed runner-up honors.

Reigning Asian ROK Senior champion Juha Turalba of Ready2Race put up a tough fight against defending Asian Karting Open champ Tin Sritrai of Thailand before settling for Formula 125 Open Senior runner-up honors, just 0.416 of a second behind Sritrai.

Another Jet Racing karter, Christian Gaddi, took third place in the Mini-ROK division.