INQUIRER Sports

ACE KARTER Stefano Marcelo warded off the challenge of an Indonesian racer and teammate John Alvarez to top back-to-back races of the KF2 division in the third leg of the 2009 Pagcor Sports KF2-KF3 Series held recently at the Carmona Circuit Philippines.

The twin victories put the 17-year-old Marcelo in a tie for third place with Juha Turalba in the overall standings at 40 points.

Alvarez seized the lead with 62 points, or a seven-point advantage over Japanese Daiki Sasaki who has 55 points.

Marcelo started third in Race 5 and was stuck behind Indonesia’s Senna Sulaiman Noor during the first 16 laps. A quick maneuver caught Noor by surprise, allowing Marcelo to grab the lead for good.

He wrapped up the 20-lap race in 14 minutes and 13.140 seconds, 1.187 seconds ahead of Noor. Alvarez checked in third while Turalba and Cebu’s Patrick Gandionco took the next two spots.

Noor dominated anew the first few laps of Race 6 but Marcelo managed to overtake him in the fourth lap and dictated the tempo from thereon, winning in 14:14.658.

Alvarez took second place 0.283 of a second behind while Japanese bets Daiki Kawanishi Noa Satomi were fourth and fifth, respectively.