A track he had never driven before Friday morning became the site of Axel Nocom’s breakthrough on the European stage over the weekend, as the 14-year-old Filipino captured his first Final victory in the Champions of the Future Academy (COTFA) at the Aspar Circuit in Valencia, Spain.
The winning drive came in Sunday’s decider, where Nocom launched cleanly from pole and dictated the opening exchanges of the OK-N Junior race. Portugal’s Vicente Capela wrested the lead away from him at the midpoint, but Nocom refused to let the gap grow, worked his way back to the front, and defended P1 to the flag by 0.278 seconds.
His path there ran counter to how most of the 27-car grid had prepared. While several title contenders arrived with testing mileage banked at Valencia, Nocom spent all five Free Practice runs simply dialing in his kart and finding pace, climbing from 13th in the morning to 8th by day’s end.
The tide shifted on Saturday. Nocom clocked the second-quickest time in Warm Up, then produced a lap in Qualifying that took pole by a razor-thin 0.025 seconds. He turned that into a Heat 1 win despite a mid-race scrap with the UAE’s Mitansh Jain, who edged in front before Nocom reclaimed the position. The rematch in Heat 2 tilted the other way, with Jain applying steady pressure and overtaking on lap 7 to relegate Nocom to second.
The combined heat scores still left him on pole for Saturday’s Final, but the race unraveled almost immediately. Boxed in by the pack at the start, he tumbled to fifth. With two laps to go he moved to pass Switzerland’s Zoltan Coigny and Norway’s Christian Faye Lund, who were disputing third, only for contact with Coigny to end both their races.
Sunday brought redemption from the outset. Nocom retook pole in Qualifying, becoming the first OK-N Junior driver this season to log consecutive COTFA poles. Wary of the previous day’s retirement, he raced conservatively in Heat 1, slipping to third behind Capela and holding station there to the finish. Needing more to reset his grid slot for the Final, he flipped his approach in Heat 2 and led every lap for a clear win that locked in the top starting spot.
Nocom framed the result as proof of a method rather than a verdict on rankings.
“I felt it was only a matter of time because we’ve been fighting at the front since Round 1, but penalties and incidents kept us from getting the results we wanted. Winning here doesn’t mean I’m the best Filipino karter. For me, it shows that if I can do it, so can others with the right guidance. I didn’t have a coach or prior testing at Aspar unlike most of the other drivers, but we found ways to overcome that,” he said.
Much of that adaptability has been built away from the circuit. Nocom leans on sim racing to study tracks he hasn’t seen and races European rivals through the AMS Karting Series, where he and the Mercedes Driver Development program stand as the only Filipino entries. His broader résumé already spans venues across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and this year he became the first Filipino to race an electric kart in Japan, reaching the podium at the Tokyo EV Championships.
The season is not finished. One round remains, and the OK-N Junior title fight is still unresolved heading to the finale at the Franciacorta Karting Track in Italy on November 13–15. Nocom carries his backing from Mercedes Driver Development, Deseño MNL, Recaro Philippines, Ceramic Pro Philippines, DRIFT XAUST, DRIFT MOTOR Speedway, Ekartraceway, Kart Republic, Oasis Tech HK, Dri Plus Ph, Simagic, Apex Racing Philippines, Monza Barcade, Pregame Merchandise, and DG Budget Hotel into that closing weekend.
