Karting takes off with a bang at Singapore's Formula One track

More than 70 karters comprising professional racers, corporate leaders and industry team representatives took to the track in sleek Italian high-end Alonso and Tony Karts – thrilling one and all with spins, twists, turns and even crashes as they sped around the 1.2-km circuit.

Senna Sulaiman Noor, from Indonesia, emerged triumphant in the eagerly-awaited Professional Demo International Karting Category. He beat Singapore’s Julien Fong by 1.1 sec and Indonesia’s Vincent Junius Nathan, second and third respectively, to win the top title. Senna said: “I’m very happy to come in first even though this is my first time taking part in Singapore. The F1 track is truly is a beautiful place to race and the people here are very nice.”

The Corporate Endurance Race was won by Team Show Company. They beat Aibi/Life Fitness in second place and SGP were third. A total of 12 corporate teams participated, and they were Adirondack Asia/Resorts World, Aibi/Life Fitness (USA), Arina,  Dz Engineering (Italy), Ferrari, Laguna Golf and Country Club, Orba/STB, Pico, Singapore Grand Prix, Show Company, Enmaru and World Sports Group

Some of the industry team members flew in especially for today’s race. One such karter, Aibi International /Life Fitness’s Gene Harper, Life Fitness General Manager for Asia Pacific. He said: “As a big F1 fan, it was such a thrill to race at such a historic F1 venue. It’s a once in a lifetime experience and was definitely well worth the trip from Chicago.”

But it was the CEO and Industry Leaders’ Race which drew the biggest interest – largely because there were many prominent captains of industry who took to wearing race suits instead of business suits.

Led by NTUC CEO Tan Kian Chiew, Member of Parliament and Football Association of Singapore president Zainudin Nordin and Jumbo Seafood and Restaurant Association of Singapore president Ang Kiam Meng, the 12 CEO karters thrilled all. There were even women in the race, such as Ruth Yeoh, the executive director of YTL Corporation, and Pauline Kwek, the marketing director of Aibi International.

The CEOs were split into two races. The first race was won by Joseph Sim, managing director of Show Company with Patwant Singh from MediaCorp in runner-up position. Yeo See Kiat, CEO of Suntec Reit was third. The second race was won by Howey Lee, director of Lee Kim Yew Corp with Quek Swee Kwan, assistant managing director of EDB second and MP Zainudin Nordin third.

Joseph said: “The experience today both on and off the track today was amazing. The karts today were a lot more powerful which meant that drivers had to be more tactical instead of relying purely on speed.”

The exclusive members and invitation-only KF-1 race required each team to purchase a race kart package with prices ranging from $22,000 to $48,000. The teams who signed up will be entitled to own the karts with today’s race the first of many to come.

Richard Tan, chairman of KF-1, said, “We are humbled that many who raced today enjoyed themselves. We want to help develop motorsports in Singapore and will certainly be organising more races all over the island for our teams and the many more who have expressed interest in joining us.’’

The KF-1 kart race is an event of firsts – the first at the F1 track, the first to bring in the high-end Italian-made Fernando Alonso and Tony Karts, the first to use Techpro safety barriers and the first to feature so many industry teams and CEOs.