A new partnership is born
We see as usual our formidable foes SsangYong, Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Mazda, Mini, Subaru and Isuzu, fielding a combined 35-plus cars, raring to outrace us. Fine.
I’ve covered many races already both here and abroad to include the Formula One in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Shanghai, to name only a few.
But the coverage would soon expand into me being a race driver, then a team official.
Soon enough, I‘d become a team captain of a prestigious car company in the most awaited road rally every year.
That was in 2010, when Ray Butch “Elvis” Gamboa flagged off the “Sampaguita Rally” after revivals of the fabled event in 2001 and 2009 proved successful.
Elvis’s 2010 race renamed STV-Auto Rallye Corporate Challenge allowed car companies to field at least three of their models in a one-day race that gives premium on “time accuracy,” or “on time all the time” at every finish line of the race.
As Lexus Manila founding president in 2009, Danny “Sir John” Isla was the Lexus team manager when he appointed me his team captain in 2010. Thus began an enduring partnership that was only broken when Sir John retired in 2017, drifting off to New Zealand since.
But then came the call from Raymond T. Rodriguez, Sir John’s successor.
“Let’s continue to have fun, Al san,” said Raymond, the cousin, in case you want to know, of the eminent film director Loy Arcenas, who megged the critically-acclaimed “Larawan” only a while back. “You are the Lexus captain again.”
And so today, Raymond and I begin a new era of partnership as Elvis’s blasts off anew at 9 a.m. in Clark Pampanga.
We see as usual our formidable foes SsangYong, Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Mazda, Mini, Subaru and Isuzu, fielding a combined 35-plus cars, raring to outrace us. Fine.
But then, as always, our battle cry has been: “Friendship first, competition second.”
Raymond and I are confident that the Lexus Team’s “mother hens” of Frances Concepcion, Lui Curitana and Winda Payade have made our boys Dominic Sy, Lourde Ramos and John Oliver Sy (RX350 FSport), Nico Yllana, Jacob Oliva and Vincent Villa (NX 300) and Brent Co, Jarlo Solde and John Biscocho (LX570) mentally ready for today’s outing, bearing in mind the corporate mantra of pursuing the art of perfection that Lexus has been espousing for all these years.
And so, gentlemen, start your engines!