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Yevan David, a 10-year old Sri Lankan-born up and coming racing star who is currently based in Singapore, finished in the top 16 at the IAME World Karting Finals 2017 held in France, amidst mechanical problems during the qualifying session.
The IAME World Finals were held earlier this month at the Le Mans International Karting Circuit in France with 400 of the world’s top drivers vying for honours.
This was the first time that IAME invited Mini drivers (8-12 years) to participate in the event by winning their home championships. Mini Drivers from Europe, North America, South America, Russia, the Middle East, and Asia took part in the finals in France.
Yevan, having won the championship for South East Asia, qualified to represent Asia at this prestigious event.
The grid was competitive and Yevan had the pace to be in the top 10 throughout practice. Unfortunately during qualifying, his kart had a mechanical fault and he could only qualify 33rd from 36. In the heats that followed, he fought his way up to finish 20, 24, and 30 from 36, the final place being the result of having to avoid another driver who had crashed and spinning out.
After starting 27th in the pre-final, Yevan fought his way forward to finish 21st.
The final proved to be a hard fought race which was red flagged four laps in due to a crash and Yevan battled to finish in 16th place.
The result also puts him in the top 16 drivers for his age group in the world.
He will now race in Singapore and Thailand for the rest of the year but will be racing on home soil, Sri Lanka, in January 2018 at the Sri Lanka Karting Circuit in Bandaragama where he started karting, at the inaugural X30 race.