The Automobile Association Philippines recently awarded Miguel Quiñones the 2021 AAP Driver of the Year for Karting during the recent 26th AAP Awards Night at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
This award is considered the highest distinction in the field of Karting for Motorsports.
Earlier this year, Quiñones also received the Golden Wheel Awards for Karting and was adjudged as the 2021 National Senior Karter of the Year. The two consecutive overall awards received by Quiñones were based on the accumulated points in the National Karting Championships tournament, where several rounds were held at Clark International Speedway in Pampanga and in Carmona Racing Circuit in Cavite.
There was also a period when Quiñones swept the last four championship rounds in two consecutive days of non-stop karting to finally secure the overall title. This happened only days after arriving from an international karting campaign in Italy for the ROK Cup Superfinal and the IAME World Final last October 2021, representing the Philippines.
Amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic, Quiñones did not hibernate from the sport.
Instead, he used it as an opportunity to prepare his body and mind, waiting for the resumption of events after health restrictions were relaxed.
As he was always ready to race, Quiñones collected trophies round per round until the final four rounds where he poured out all the skills he gained from several international competitions, thus earning him the moniker “The Quadruple Champion” by beating all of his rivals in just two straight days of competition.
Quiñones, a Santa Rosa, Laguna resident, who is 18 years old and studies at Brent International School, started karting at age 15. This is quite late when compared to kids who start learning karting as early as seven years old.
This, however, was never a challenge for Quiñones. Thanks to his supportive parents Dr. Ricardo Galvez Quiñones and Dra. Maria Zen Quiñones, Quiñones was able to easily get up to speed. In a matter of only two years, he was already awarded the Asian Open Karting Championships Junior Champion. For this year, he recently won the first round of Rotax Max Challenge Philippines Series as a Senior Karter under DRQ Motorsports, the biggest racing team in the country today.
With all the things falling into place, and with the proper coaching management from his multi-time Karter of the Year Head Coach John T. Dizon, along with the proper race tuning through a team of veteran international mechanics, Quiñones is expected to lead his team campaign and hopefully secure his back-to-back title this year.