AT A GLANCE

• Driver: Muhammad Fadhl Abbas Wibowo, age 10
• Event: Round 4, Italian ACI Karting Championship 2026, category Mini Gr.3
• Location: Kartodromo Val Vibrata, Sant'Egidio alla Vibrata, Teramo, Italy — July 24–26, 2026
• Result: Started P19, finished 1st, 8.194 seconds ahead of runner-up Ryan di Munno 
  
  

He qualified 13th, then dropped further back before the final. By the time the lights went out for the Mini Gr.3 final at Val Vibrata, Muhammad Fadhl Abbas Wibowo was starting from 19th on the grid, buried in a pack of nearly 300 drivers who had traveled to this circuit in Abruzzo from 48 countries. Forty minutes later, he was the one standing on the top step, gold trophy in hand, while the Indonesian national anthem played over the loudspeakers of an Italian racetrack.

Who, what, where, when, how

Muhammad Fadhl Abbas Wibowo, a 10-year-old Indonesian karting driver racing for the BabyRace Driver Academy team, won Round 4 of the 2026 Italian ACI Karting Championship in the Mini Gr.3 class. The race took place at Kartodromo Val Vibrata in Sant'Egidio alla Vibrata, Teramo, from July 24 to 26, 2026. He beat Italy's Ryan di Munno by a margin of 8.194 seconds, moving through the field from a 19th-place start.

What Is the Italian ACI Karting Championship?

The Italian ACI Karting Championship, run by ACI Sport, is one of Europe's most competitive junior and senior go-kart series, spread across five rounds a year at circuits including Lonato, La Conca, Sarno, Val Vibrata, and Viterbo. This year's Val Vibrata round drew a record 293 drivers through scrutineering, which organizers called the highest turnout the Abruzzo circuit has ever recorded. Points were also boosted by 50 percent for this round, since it's the second-to-last stop before September's finale, so the standings shift that came out of this weekend actually matter.

How Did a Grid Position of 19th Turn Into a Win?
Rain hit during Sunday's Prefinals, scrambling grip levels and catching several favorites out. Wibowo used the chaos, picking off rivals corner by corner rather than waiting for one big move. The Instagram account of Indonesia Racing summed up the moment simply: "Indonesia Raya echoed across Val Vibrata, Italy."

What makes the win sharper is the contrast with his qualifying pace  13th, not exactly pole material. A driver who starts mid-pack and finishes on top usually means either the front-runners crashed out or the kid in question spent 40 minutes doing something everyone else on the grid couldn't.

Why This Matters for Indonesian Motorsport
Indonesia doesn't have a deep karting pipeline the way Italy, the UK, or the Netherlands do  countries that treat karting as the first rung of a ladder toward Formula 4, F3, and eventually F1. A 10-year-old Indonesian driver beating a home-soil Italian racer, on Italian tarmac, in a category stacked with talent from nearly 50 countries, is the kind of result that gets noticed by scouts who track junior standings for a living.

Wibowo now sits inside a Mini Gr.3 championship table where the current standings leader is American driver Wynn Godschalk, with British driver Alfie Richard Mair in second. One more strong round in Viterbo this September could shift that picture again.