Japanese rules Petron race

Kaito Tsukada used his outstanding experience in the highest levels of Japanese karting to overwhelm the opposition in the third leg of the Asian Karting Open Championships at Clark International Speedway track in Pampanga over the weekend.

The 16-year-old prodigy from Tokyo swept all three 10-lap qualifying heats around the sleek 1.2-kilometer kart circuit before besting China’s Yan Liang by 4.235 seconds in the 24-lap finals with a time of 19 minutes and 14.504 seconds.

Tsukada, fresh off a runner-up finish in a recent leg of the 2018 All-Japan Kart Championships, pooled a maximum 70 points, never yielding pole spot all weekend long in the absence of erstwhile series leader Eduardo “EJ” Coseteng and another top Filipino hope, Jacob Ang.

Heading into the fourth and final leg of the annual competition sponsored by San Miguel Corp. and Petron, Tsukada zoomed into the overall lead of the Formula 125 Senior Open and X30 Senior classes with 170 points, 50 clear of Liang, the runnerup in all four races.

Liang compensated for a inferior power plant with his nifty passing skill and settled for the ROK GP Senior title.