Competing for the DRM Racing Team in the Cadet grouping, 10-year-old Porsche performed extremely impressively and consistently over the seven-race series to secure the title on overall points and will now represent Asia at the IAME Warriors world finals in Portimao on the Algarve between Oct 23-28.
Regular readers of The Phuket News will know Porsche’s story well as the student from Kajonkietsuksa School in Kathu has developed impressively in the sport and won numerous races and accolades in recent years, including a special award of recognition from Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew last year.
It is well known that go-karting is the introduction to motorsports for aspiring youngsters and the platform for many successful Formula One drivers such as Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Räikkönen, Jenson Button and current F1 world champion Max Verstappen. Only time will tell if young Porsche follows in such illustrious footsteps, although the signs are very encouraging.
His recent success stretches over a seven-month timeframe where seven separate races were contested as part of the IAME Asia Series, all in Malaysia.
Round one was held on Feb 12 at Shah Alam International Kart Circuit, Petaling Jaya, where Porsche finished a rather disappointing sixth place in the final race. However, the structure of the scoring system in the IAME Asia Series means that points accrued in both the final and pre-final race are combined to provide an overall score for the weekend. Porsche’s score was therefore aided greatly by the fact he finished second in the pre-final race to secure an impressive overall points haul of 80.
Round two took place on Mar 12, once again at the Shah Alam International Kart Circuit where Porsche secured an overall ponts tally of 81 after a fourth place finish in the final and a third place finish in the pre-final.
Dominating
RUD Sepang International Kart Circuit in Selangor hosted round three of the series on May 28 where Porsche achieved his highest points total so far of 83 thanks to a runners-up finish in the final race and a fourth place finish in the pre-final.
The same venue hosted round four on June 25 where Porsche finished fifth in the final race and second in the pre-final to score an overall 81 points.
Accustomed to the track and conditions at RUD Sepang International Kart Circuit, Porsche delivered his best show of the series so far in round five on July 25 by dominating proceedings and winning both the final race and the pre-final to finish the weekend with an impressive score of 89.
RUD Sepang International Kart Circuit hosted round six on Aug 20 where Porsche finished fourth in both the final pre-final to pick up a total of 80 points.
The final round of the series took place on Sept 17 at the Elite Speedway Plus Karting Circuit in Subang Jaya. It was a difficult weekend for young Porsche who finished a lowly eighth place in the final race and an even more disappointing 10th in the pre-final to ensure his lowest points return of the series of 70.
However, the consistency that the young driver displayed over the course of the series ensured he had accrued enough points (494) to claim the overall winner’s title ahead of Esteban Freihuber of the Philippines who ended in second place, and Michael Lederer of Malaysia who finished third.
In addition to his achievements in the IAME Asia series, Porsche is also going great guns in the ‘Mini Max’ age classification of the seven-race series Rotax Max Challenge Asia Trophy 2023 (RMCAT).
He leads the overall points table going into the series finale next weekend (Oct 7-8) at the UniMAP Racing Circuit in Perlis, Malaysia and will be confident of adding yet another title to his ever-expanding and hugely impressive list of achievements in the sport.