Months of hard work, which included a few heartbreaking moments and near-misses, has finally come into fruition. Axel Nocom began Round 5 of the Champions of The Future (COTF) Academy with a point-scoring 8th on Saturday at the Al Ain Raceway (AAR) in Abu Dhabi. With learnings from the previous day, the Filipino came back stronger on Sunday to secure a front row start in Qualifying and 4th place finish in the Finals – his best result in the series to date.
Extra track time always helps. As this wasn’t Axel’s first outing around the 1.600 km circuit (he raced here just a month ago), it allowed him to immediately get up to speed and was 4th fastest at best during Friday practice.
Unfortunately, this did not translate well into Saturday Qualifying where he got stuck behind traffic and could only manage P20. It was a similar story during the Heats. Axel struggled to find a clean way past and finished where he started in Heat 1. He then muscled his way up to 17th in the closing stages of Heat 2 to end in 17th.
With luck on his side, Axel was able to avoid a multi-kart collision at the start of the Saturday Finals. This also moved him up from P21 to P11 at the restart. He then spent the remainder of the race swapping places before taking the chequered flag in 8th place with points in the bag.
It was Axel’s moment to shine on Sunday, beginning the day by Qualifying on the front row the grid in P2 alongside Mercedes-AMG F1 Junior karter James Anagnostiadis. However, that also made him an easy target and was hit from behind twice at the start of Heat 1, dropping him down to P7. But he fought back to salvage 6th at the finish. Heat 2 saw a repeat with Axel losing several positions at the start. He then followed a long 10-kart train all the way to the chequered flag where he collected 7th place.
In stark contrast to the Heats, the 15-lap Finals was relatively incident-free. Axel would start from P5 on the grid and maintained position for more than half the race distance. He only came under attack with a few laps to go as Leonidas Peruzzi found a way past on fresher tires. Although he was P6 across the line, post race penalties later promoted the 12-year-old to 4th place – just one spot away from a podium.
Axel’s 11-month journey in the COTF Academy comes to a close on December 1/3 at the Al Forsan Kart Circuit in the UAE. It has truly been a trial by fire for the lone Filipino karter on the grid on one of the most competitive series around the world. This is where Formula 1 teams come to scout for new Junior Team drivers where the likes of Merceds-AMG Junior Luna Fluxa, and Williams F1 Juniors Lucas Palacios and Sara Matsui were picked up.
Axel Nocom: “It was really a different atmosphere all race weekend as the usual front runners were behind me this time. The big contrast to races locally is that they were happy for me. When I qualified 2nd, my MN Motorsport teammates came to me to help me strategize for the race. The whole experience and finishing 4th helped boost my confidence going into the last round in December.”
Axel Nocom is supported by the Mercedes Young Driver Development Philippines, Automobile Association Philippines, Deseño MNL, Petromax Cars, Recaro Philippines, DENSO Spark Plugs, Ceramic Pro Philippines, Ravenol Philippines, AutoPlus Sports, DRIFT XAUST, DRIFT MOTOR Speedway, Ekartraceway, Kart Republic, New Era Cap Philippines, Skullcandy Philippines, Burlington Socks, Simagic, Cammus Philippines, Apex Racing Philippines, Monza Barcade, Pregame Motorsport Merchandise, and DG Budget Hotel.
For more info and the latest updates, follow the Axel Motorsports page on Facebook.
[Photos courtesy of Jon Gonzales and Box Box Photography Spain]
