DEAD for almost four years, karting in Cebu got a major reboot yesterday as it hosted the prestigious Petron Motorsports Karting Academy with 39 participants.
Such was the interest that organizers only expected 15 to 20 and but got double the participants in the two-day clinic, while Kartzone, which handled the registration, had to turn scores more since they couldn’t accommodate them.
The clinic is part of the Cebu karting community’s drive to rejuvenate the sport, which has been stagnant since 2014.
“We decided to hold the first session of the academy here because we know the interest was here and there are a lot of potential drivers here,” said Petron marketing associate Cheska Garcia. “We were only expecting 15 to 20 participants but we got 39 today and that’s impressive. There are also a lot of parents who are very supportive.”
Garcia said that after Cebu, they will hold similar clinics in Bacolod and Davao and will have the best drivers from the three clinics join their racing series in Manila next season.
“We are going to choose the best drivers and let them compete in Manila for one whole season, which is usually five to six legs,” said Garcia.
With a strong turnout in the first Petron Motorsports Karting Academy, Garcia said they could hold another clinic in the future or even make it an annual event. Petron is also looking at holding a race again in Kartzone, which had its last racing series in 2014 yet.
Aside from holding more clinics, the Cebu karting community is hoping races in Cebu will be staged following international standards set by the CIK-FIA, the governing body for the sport in the world. Under its rules, the practice of “team orders” are no longer allowed. A team order is when a team intentionally hits a target driver so he will drop from his position, allowing a teamate to win or finish at a higher position.
On the other hand, Kartzone president Jess Garcia is grateful that Petron chose to hold the clinic in Cebu.
“This is what we need to jumpstart karting,” said Garcia, who has trained some of Cebu’s best drivers like Matteo Guidecille at Kartzone.
The strong interest by the community for the clinic has also rekindled his plan to revive a local race to develop more drivers.
“We can hold a racing series for the 7 to 12 years old using kartzone karts. Just a mini series for those who have joined the clinic or other clinics that we will hodl. We can also have other divisions but I’m more interested in the grassroots. We can definitely develop local talents.” ML