Calderon bags 3rd straight Jr Karter of Year plum

Prodigious Cebuano karter Jette Calderon once again showed that he is peerless when he is at the top of his game as he captured his third straight Junior Karter of the Year award after topping the Petron Karting Super Series and the Denso KF2-KF3 Cup Series over the weekend at the Carmona Racetrack in Cavite.

Calderon, a student of the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu and a stalwart of the Industria Racing team, captured the coveted plum by beating teammate Franco Retes and Estefano Rivera and Vrei-Ar Suba, both of Fern-C Racing. Calderon and Suba actually finished with the same number of points with each tallying 180 points but the Cebuano won in the countback.

The Petron Karting Super Series and the Denso KF2-KF3 Cup determines the recipients of Philippine karting’s top awards based on cumulative points.

Calderon showed his toughness and grit as he won the championship round of the series after outlasting spirited challenges from Rivera to win the ROK Overall and the ROK Juniors championships.

The youngster placed second to Rivera in the pre-finals race but leaned on his crafty driving skills to overtake Rivera and utilized his defensive maneuvers to stave off his opponent.

He completed the 20-lap race in 14 minutes, 51,422 seconds or 1.315 seconds ahead of Rivera in the combined ROK races. VJ Suba of FERN-C Racing checked in third in the ROK Overall while Reyes and Suba ended fourth and fifth, respectively. Reyes took third place in the ROK Junior class behind Calderon and Rivera with Suba and CJ Tsui placing fourth and fifth, respectively.

Meanwhile, Stefano Marcelo copped the most prestigious award of them all, the Karter of the Year diadem, after he finished with a cumulative total of 200 points. VJ Suba came in second with 170 points followed by Franco Reyes (140) and Milo Rivera (120).