Racing drama continues as Vios Cup Season 2 heads off for Cebu

THE VIOS Cup Season 2 invades the Queen City of the South, and Cebuanos are excited to witness the first major car racing spectacle in years to be staged in the 2.2-kilometer Toyota SRP Cebu Street Circuit at the South Road Properties on May 16 to 17.

From an initial list of 40 drivers in the Vios Cup Season 2 kickoff at the Clark Intemational Speedway, the Cebu round will yet see another record field of 46 drivers as Team Toyota Cebu will be fielding five drivers, Lord Seno, Harold Ong, Oscar Suarez and National Karting standouts Jette Calderon and Sean Velasco, while newcomer Rene Sta. Romana  will be driving for Toyota-Cabanatuan.
Toyota Motor Philippines first vice president for marketing Raymond Rodriguez appreciated Cebu’s warm welcome during the media launching of the said event at the Marco Polo Hotel and felt for himself the great interest of the Cebuano racing fanatics who have long waited for such a world-class event to happen on their soil.

Bringing the race to Cebu is another winning marketing formula, considering the much bigger crowd of Cebuano spectators who will not let go of this rare chance to witness what car racing is all about.
The Cebu City Traffic Operations  had its hands full in mapping out alternative rerouting schemes as well as crowd control preparations for the event.

Rivalries and intrigues
But on top of it all, rivalries and intrigues provide the color and drama in the pursuit for this year’s Vios Cup overall championship and the grand prize worth P1.5 million.
Defending champion Luis Gono of Toyota North Edsa, after winding  up sixth in Race 1 and eighth in Race 2, has the Team Obengers pledging all-out support for his back-to-back title bid.

Toyota San Fernando’s top gun Pauland Dumlao remains the top favorite as he secured solo leadership with 35 points following his runner-up feat in Race 1 and his big triumph in Race 2 despite the added 25-kilogram weight.

His Race 2 victory stirred controversy on the contested rule of additional weights for the winners to even up the field. Though no one filed a protest, talks remained animated among participants.

“It’s either Dumlao had modifications on his engine to withstand the effects of the additional weight, otherwise his victory puts to doubt the purpose of imposing additional weights in giving all other drivers equal chances of winning,” commented an experienced racecar driver, who requested anonymity.

“In the spirit of sportsmanship and camaraderie, none of the other drivers filed a protest with a corresponding fee that would persuade the Chief Scrutineer to open up the engine and check on any alteration that may give such driver undue advantage over the rest,” he added.

No discrepancies
Mark Desales of the AAP Motorsports Committee said there were no discrepancies found on Dumlao’s win as his car passed the Dyno Test. The rule on additional weights for the winners was a long standing practice to even the level of competition which was proven when Dumlao had a close fight with four other drivers at the start, and later saw Miranda catching up on him.
“Probably, Dumlao is a thinking driver who found a way to strategically place the added weight so as to minimize the burden or concentrate power on a specific side of the opposite the weights to maintain balance during the race,” Desales said.
“Otherwise, they should have filed the protest, paid the corresponding fee to compel the Scrutineering Chief to open up the engine for thorough investigation to clear up all suspicions and uphold the credibility of the rules and conduct of the race,” he added.
Allan Uy of Toyota Quezon Avenue was second overall with 25 points while two Toyota Ayala Alabang drivers—Estefano Rivera who ruled Race 1 and Andres Calma—were tied for third with 20 points apiece.
Sharing fourth place were Basti Escalante and Daniel Miranda of Toyota Balintawak, the latter getting the biggest attention from the crowds.
Mistaken identity
From the grandstand and the spectators area, young ladies initially thought Miranda was part of the visiting British pop group One Direction that incidentally would stage a concert the night of that same date, speculating further that TMP invited him as the surprise treat for spectators joining  the actual race as part of the promotional line-up vying for the Celebrity crown.
These girls were even more surprised to see him lined up with the main Sporting group together with the real racers as they blurted out loud howls of cheers watching Miranda staging an aggressive rally from the tailend 20th spot with a fastest laptime of 2:27.307 to pass one driver after another enroute to a very impressive second place finish behind champion Pauland Dumlao at the end of the 12-lap action in Race 2.

However, penalties pushed him to third place in the revised results, handing Allan Uy of Toyota Quezon Avenue the runner-up trophy and the P50,000 cash prize.

Indeed, Miranda’s blond hair and Caucasian features were deceiving and oftentimes mistaken for a popular foreign celebrity.

To cut the intro, Miranda actually hails from Cebu with strong French blood, and is a popular figure in Cebu’s Society pages being the grandson of Jean Philippe Lhuillier, the CEO of the fast-growing conglomerate of Cebuana Lhuillier.

Even at a young age, racing had been Daniel’s primary interest that he became a regular fixture at Cebu’s premiere kart track, the KartZone. Convinced of his great racing potentials, his father Martin felt that the KartZone was not enough to further cultivate his skills so that they decided Daniel should be competing in the National Karting Series in Manila.
To avoid further hassles going back and forth to Cebu, the family soon decided to move to Metro Manila and enrolled him in reputable school. In time, Daniel reaped victory after another while moving up to higher classes until he achieved his ultimate goal of winning the Karter of the Year award in 2013.
Bonus action
Apart from his good looks, the crowd admired Miranda more for delivering most of the exciting action particularly in the dying laps, where he wrested the lead before Dumlao got the top spot for good and emerge as champion in Race 2.
Miranda’s honest-to-goodness racing performance reaped several awards. Aside from his third place trophy and P25,000 cash prize for his incredible feat in Race 2, he bagged the Denso Fastest Time award and emerged the unanimous choice for the Motul Slingshot pium for his mind-boggling leap from the bottom to an amazing overall third place finish.

In the celebrity race, defending champion Sam Gogna will be slugging it out with host Phoemela Barranda, sports scribe Jinno Rufino, model Fabio Ide, actor Derek Ramsey, and actresses Kylie Padilla and Jasmine Curtis-Smith.

Aside from the race, there will be side events like the drift exhibition by Japanese drift king Keiichi Tsuchiya, performances from DJ Mars Miranda. Seven celebrities will be also be in town to race. Admission is for free.