Yevan Ranasinghe is overall South East Asia Cadet Karting champion
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Yevan Ranasinghe, claiming the overall championship title
Sri Lankan Yevan Ranasinghe David, a 10-year-old up and coming racing star, currently residing in Singapore, emerged Overall Champion of the Cadet category of the X30 South East Asia Karting Championship 2017 at the Sepang Gokart Circuit in Malaysia last week.The young kart racing prodigy went into the sixth and final round of the championship at the popular track in Sepang with a formidable 10-point lead ahead of Singaporean Christian Ho and 22-point lead to Cui Yan Pu and Akshay Bohra who race for Singapore and China respectively.Winning the final race could have added up to 46 points to the overall tally of the winner, as all five drivers at the top of the table were pushing for podium finishes in search if the top spot. The weekend had a challenging start with Yevan battling illness but persevered with testing and practice.
Qualifying round didn’t go as planned for Yevan and he was placed ninth, but managed to secure the fifth spot in Heat 1and ninth in Heat 2, which gave him the pre-final start in the sixth position. Yevan finished the pre-final at fourth position and needed to be among the Top 5 of the final to secure the title.
The final saw Yevan fall back to fifth before fighting back within two laps to take the lead, but a few errors pushed him the lead and dropped to third. Yevan held his on to the third position until he challenged with a brave move to take second with one corner to go for the finish.
He went too wide on the exit, however, and fell back to third, but the podium finish was more than enough for him to win the X30 Southeast title by 21 points. The victory also earned him a free entry to the IAME Karting World Finals which will be held in Le Mans, France on October 14 and 15.
Yevan is the first Sri Lankan Cadet driver to win an international championship and is looking forward to make his motherland proud by winning the prestigious World Championships in October. Yevan’s younger brother, Yevin who is the youngest driver on the grid at age of seven also is participating in his first year of racing, and finished 19th among 20 drivers, within a second of the fastest lap times.
Yevan (21) was placed third in the final round at Sepang