Carcel siblings make history

The Carcels made history in local karting as they became the first brother-and-sister combo to take home titles in their respective divisions during the fifth leg of the 2012 Kartzone Superkart Series last Saturday at the Kartzone track in barangay Panagdait, Cebu City.

Juan Antonio “Tonyo” Carcel showed nerves of steel as he came all the way back from fifth place on the grid during the final heat to take the checkered flag in the Formula KT Expert class.

His younger sister Kali, on the other hand, proved that she is on a class all on her own as she dominated the Formula KT Novice category  en route to the overall title in her class.

Michelle and Mark Bumgarner were the last siblings to win titles in the same race but they did it in Manila.

While Kali took first place in all three of the heats, it was an uphill battle for Tonyo as after he took first place in the qualifying race after logging in a time of 27.871 seconds beating out rival Jette Calderon and Joseph Rojo. But an accident during the first heat brought the PAREF-Springdale ace all the way down to 10th place before he recovered to fifth.

Carcel finished the second heat in third place and worked hard to overtake Calderon after two laps.  Three laps later, Carcel caught Rojo at the turn to take first place and held the lead all the way to the end for a total time of 11 minutes and 36.810 seconds.

Calderon finished in second with a time of 11:42.037. JT Gullas grabbed third place honors. Panpan Reroma won the title in the Formula KT Masters class, beating out Regan King.

The win allowed Carcel to keep the lead in the race for Karter of the Year honors with just two more races left on the circuit.