Cebuano racer William John Riley Go made his debut in the prestigious FIA Karting Academy Trophy in style, taking second place after the first leg in Genk, Belgium over the weekend.
Go, who was the IAME Series Asia Cadet champion and the Mini ROK champion in the Asian Karting Open Champions and ROK Cup Singapore, before the pandemic forced him to a two-year hiatus, is now competing in Europe for Forza Racing for the 2022 season.
He is also part of the FIA Karting Academy Trophy, which www.fiakarting.com describes as a unique formula aimed at training and discovering unique talents all over the world between the ages of 12 and 14. The 54 drivers in the class are given identical karts, which are drawn in each round. The first winner of the FIA Karting Academy Trophy, which started in 2010, is Charles Leclerc, who now leads the F1 Drivers race for Ferrari with 104 points.
In the first round in Belgium, Go finished third in qualifying, behind leader Arthur Dorison of France and Guillaume Bouzar of Luxembourg. However, Go moved to second place after just the first lap, beating Bourg by one-hundredths of a second. The positions of the top three were maintained all throughout the 19-lap race, with Go coming closest to the leader in the seventh lap, when he was only two-hundredths of a second behind the leader.
Go eventually finished 0.548 second behind the winner, while posting a best time of 54.423. Dorison’s best lap was 54.357, while third placer Bouzar had a best lap of 54.430. In the points table, Dorison leads with a perfect 35 points, 10 from his pole in qualifying and 25 for winning the race. Go is second with 28, 8 from qualifying and 20 for finishing second, while Bouzar is a close second with 25 points (9 and 16).
The next round of the FIA Karting Academy Trophy will be on June 16 to 19 in Adrio, Italy. However, aside from the FIA Karting Academy Trophy, Go will also be racing in the WSK Super Master Series and IAME Euro Series according to this report from Time Attack Manila.