Following a hard-earned comeback drive at Bira, Miguel Quiñones headed to the Rotax Max Challenge (RMC) Asia Trophy’s season finale with both arms raised and ready for a fight. He finished no lower than 5th across all sessions at the Speedway PLUS Karting Circuit in Malaysia to conclude his 2024 campaign 3rd in the championship.
With the title on the line, the lap times were already tight as early as Official Practice. Miguel ended up 4th fastest and was only 0.184 secs off, giving the DRM Racing Team karter confidence as he was on pace with his championship rivals Austin Gale from Thailand, teammate Feroz Fauzy from Malaysia, and another Thai karter Siri Kongsiri.
Despite getting held up during Qualifying, the Filipino karter ended the session in 3rd, giving him a clear shot at a podium for the races. But during the Qualifying Heat, he immediately came under attack and dropped down to P6 in the first few laps. Miguel then regained a position back from Kongsiri to finish in 5th.
Now starting from the 3rd row of the grid, he would again find himself in a tight battle against Kongsiri in the Pre-Finals. The pair tussled all race long with Miguel crossing the line ahead in 5th. But with Fauzy finishing in 4th, it meant that mathematically, Miguel could now only get as high as 3rd in the championship.
Although he could have just settled for any result in the Finals, Miguel never stopped fighting. He worked with his teammate Fauzy to move both of them up the standings and get into P3 and P4 spots with the Thai karter ahead. From that point on, the Top 4 were nose-to-tail all the way to the chequered flag. Less than a second split Tsen Han Lin from Taipei, Gale, Fauzy, and Miguel as they tussled for victory with Miguel ending the race 4th on the road. However, a 5 secs post-race penalty for Tsen later promoted the Filipino to 3rd onto a spot on the podium.
In a bittersweet moment, while Miguel was able to cap off his RMC Asia title bid in 3rd for the Senior Class, he missed the opportunity to secure a ticket to the RMC Grand Finals in Sarno, Italy. Nevertheless, finishing on the podium on multiple occasions this 2024 is proof that the 4x local champion can hold his own against some of Asia’s finest drivers.
But all is not lost for Miguel. He’s still in the running for the Rotax Max Challenge Philippines and could score an entry to the Grand Finals if he takes the Senior Max title.
Miguel Quiñones: “I know that the race itself could have been better, but for me, it was a really good learning experience. In terms of my performance over the past few years, there definitely has been exponential growth racing overseas. I want to thank Senna Noor for his guidance in terms of maturity in racing and my mechanic Dodong’s resilience to do the best he can in terms of setup. Finally, thank you to DRM Racing for the amazing package they provided me. Without them, I would not have achieved this result.”
Miguel Quiñones is sponsored by RZQ The Aesthetic Surgery Clinic, RZQ Aesthetic Medicine Institute, Derma Medica, and Coca-Cola.
