A 14-year-old from the Philippines etched his name among the front-runners of junior karting in Europe after battling through mechanical setbacks, penalties, and fierce wheel-to-wheel racing across a grueling two-day event at the Kartodromo Internacional Lucas Guerrero in Valencia, Spain.
Axel Nocom finished second in the OK-N Junior category of the Champions of the Future Academy Program, a result that now places him second overall in the series standings. The field comprised 56 entries from across the globe, and Nocom was the sole Filipino on the grid.
The weekend was far from smooth. Engine trouble on Friday restricted Nocom to only three clean practice sessions, though he still posted the fourth-quickest time when the kart was functioning properly. A replacement motor arrived Saturday, but the lost track time left him scrambling in qualifying. Heavy headwinds made slipstreaming essential for competitive lap times, and without a tow on his three flying laps, he lost roughly 10 km/h on the straights and qualified only 11th.
From there, Nocom’s racecraft carried him forward. In Saturday’s opening heat, he vaulted from the sixth row to fifth by the end of lap one, then engaged Swiss driver Zoltan Coigny in a breakaway duel for the lead. Nocom crossed the line just 0.093 seconds behind Coigny for second. The second heat saw him climb to first after a four-kart scrap involving Coigny, Spain’s Herman Rodriguez, and India’s Mir Atiqa — but a five-second post-race penalty dropped him to 15th. His combined heat results still earned him a fifth-place start for Saturday’s final.
That final turned into a 15-lap slugfest. Nocom took the lead early and traded the top position repeatedly before contact with Atiqa on the last lap opened the door for Rodriguez to pull clear. Nocom crossed third but was classified fourth after a further penalty.
Sunday’s qualifying again proved difficult — stuck behind midfield traffic while hunting for a tow, he managed only 12th. Yet through two heats he fought back to the sharp end, finishing fourth and sixth respectively, though a dropped-bumper penalty after Heat 2 pushed him down to 10th on the results sheet. He lined up sixth for the final, on the exposed outside of the grid heading into Turn 1.
Nocom held his nerve off the start and reached second by lap five, setting up a closing duel with pole-sitter Coigny. He briefly seized the lead in the final laps before Coigny reclaimed it at the checkered flag by 0.087 seconds — enough for Nocom to secure the runner-up spot and his first podium finish on European soil.
The performance caps a stretch of rising international form for Nocom, who no longer competes domestically in the Philippines and has been collecting podiums and victories on circuits across multiple continents. He is supported by Mercedes Driver Development, Kart Republic, and a roster of Philippine and international partners including Deseño MNL, Recaro Philippines, Ceramic Pro Philippines, and several others.
