After a lengthy absence, Cebuano karter Juan Antonio “Tonyo” Carcel is back at the top of his game and he announced this in style last weekend as he won the title in the Yamaha Cup expert class during the 6th leg of the 2011 Petron Super Karting Series at the Carmona Race Track.
Carcel has been away from the karting scene for a while now as he chose to concentrate on his studies and football.
However, the call of the track proved to be too hard to ignore and he found himself back on the race scene and showed no traces of rust as he bested his teammate from Autos Racing, John Castellar and Kim Lagman.
He also joined the ROK Junior class but failed to land a podium finish as his engine failed during the prefinal race, which forced Carcel to utilize his spare engine that wasn’t as proficient as the original one.
Carcel was ecstatic with the feat and expressed this during an interview after the race.
“This was one of the best races of my career. The race was so intense, there was so many overtaking, dicing all the way, we were pushing and pushing to get back with the main group after making mistakes or during after a collision, and the adrenaline rush was just wicked,” said the youngster from PAREF Springdale.
More so, Carcel was happy to be back behind the wheel. “It feels so good to be back after a long time. I missed it so much because I’ve been concentrating on my studies,” he added.
His younger sister, Kali, placed fourth in the novice category of the Yamaha Cup behind Sacha Feliciano, Jaz Monzones and Basti Escalante. The siblings will be competing in the 7th leg of the series next month.