Kartzone Cebu Racing Team flexes might, sweeps races in Palawan
Kartzone Cebu Racing Team posing with the trophies they won in Palawan. | Glendale Rosal
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Kartzone Cebu Racing Team will get better and better.
Kartzone’s team manager Juan Antonio Carcel and coach William John Riley Go strongly believed so after they swept the recently concluded 2024 Petron Blaze 100 Rok Cup in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan last April 27 to 28.
In a presser on Sunday, May 5, at their headquarters in Kartzone in Panagdait, Carcel and Go presented their young drivers who led their lopsided performance in Palawan.
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Leading the drivers were Ashton Binghay who ruled the T4 intermediate senior and overall categories along with T4 intermediate junior category champion Gian Pimentel and T4 cadet novice category champion Jayden Javier.
Also part of the team that competed were Trooper Ngo, Jiggy Javier, Percy Yongco, Aeden Binghay, and Izak Zambo.
Besides clinching all four categories of the race, they also earned several podium finishes in Javier (2nd place T4 intermediate senior and overall), Ngo (6th place T4 Intermediate Senior), Aeden Binghay (6th place T4 Intermediate junior), Yongco (4th place T4 cadet novice), and Zambo (7th place T4 cadet novice).
For Ashton Binghay, he credited his team for his incredible double-title win. Binghay was also the lone champion in last March’s Petron Blaze 100 Rotax Max Challenge in Carmona Racing track in Cavite for Kartzone Cebu Racing Team.
“I was able to win the race because of my coaches and my teammates. If not for them I won’t be winning the races,” said Binghay.
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Huge improvement
For Carcel, it was a huge win for the team considering they only won a single title courtesy of Binghay in Carmona.
“We won better in this race. During the last race, we won one category in the last race in Carmona, but this time we swept all categories. For me, I just reminded them to be patient with every race. because you don’t win the race the first time, it’s all about the dedication, discipline, and the will to win to the last lap,” said Carcel.
In fact, one of their drivers, Ngo, was in a serious accident after he got bumped and ran over by a fellow racer from the rear during the race in Palawan. Ngo was rushed to the hospital, but incredibly able to return and snagged the sixth place in his category.
Ngo’s recovery for the team was a testament to their never-say-die spirit on the track.
“I came back because guess it’s because of how much they believe in me. I don’t wanna let them down. In Carmona, I didn’t have the best performance. I placed 9th overall to the top three in the qualifying in Palawan, and I thought if I could just fight through it and carry on, I think I can finish great,” said Ngo.
Teamwork
According to Go, the team’s most decorated driver being one of the only two Asians who made it into the Ferrari Driving Academy (FDA) Scouting World Finals, said their recent success on the race track was because of their teamwork.
“We help each other out, what’s happening is that one driver excels, while the other one gets better,” Go said.
“What we do is we gather all the data, we’re not just helping out one another, but helping the whole team because if one driver becomes faster, the other one should beat that driver. They learn from each other which progresses,” he said.
Aside from coaching, Go always reminded his young karting prospects to stay calm and have fun racing.
“It’s not about winning races, but improving that at the end of the year they can finally win. It’s a process,” added Go.
Meanwhile, Carcel announced that they’re planning to add more young and talented drivers to fill in their current roster.
Thus, he announced that they would hold their annual Kartzone Academy in the last week of May, besides joining future races here and outside the Philippines.
Photo caption: Kartzone Cebu Racing Team posing with the trophies they won in Palawan. | By Glendale Rosal
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