SPEED knows no limit, and sometimes age, too, when it comes to kart racing.
Craig “Seven” Aleman demonstrated just that as he was hailed as the youngest Honda cadet category champion in the first leg of 2014 National Karting Series last Sunday at Carmona race track, Cavite.
The six-year-old Cebuano wowed motor sports fans as the youngest contender in any sanctioned motor sports event in the world.
Despite his age and stiff competition, he made history in his first national competition. At once, he was named the youngest national champion and youngest national mini-rok competitor.
He was even questioned by the board of organizers before the race.
“The board had a meeting with us before the start of the race, they were doubtful to allow Seven to race because of his age, they haven’t seen him race in Visayas. So I just told them to let him race since he has had the FIA and AAP license to race,” Rei Aleman, father of Seven, told Sun.Star Cebu in a telephone interview.
Permit
Rei said Seven was given the provisional permit by the board, which can let him stop anytime during the race to secure his safety.
However, things changed when the Kartzone Cebu representative and 2013 Kartzone series sq cadet champion drove like a daredevil and slugged it out with the race leaders.
In the Honda cadet (7-11 years old) category, Seven was third when he got entangled with the number two car of Zach David, but Seven managed to escape the collision and took the number two spot.
But the first car was comfortably ahead, leading nearly half of the race track.
Seven drove fearlessly, as if sending a message that he was there to win the top spot.
His efforts paid off in the final two laps when he took the first position from Troy Cortez of Tuazon Racing Team and held on to the lead until the 15th lap to complete a come-from-behind win.
Ranks
Cortez finished as first runner-up, while David got the second place, respectively.
Seven also competed in the Mini-Rok category(9-12 years old), which featured racers from Indonesia, United States of America and United Kingdom.
Seven started last in the position out of nine racers, but managed to sneaked to a decent fifth place, which barely exceeded their sixth place expectation. Dylan Arambulo was the mini rok champion, followed by Flyn Jackes and Eduardo Coseteng.
