Auto Performance rules Petron Kalayaan Cup
A resilient six-man crew making up Team Auto Performance - Victor Hardware outgunned the rest of the field to rule the 2018 Petron Kalayaan Cup 12hour endurance race in driving, all-day rain at Clark International Speedway in Pampanga recently.
Veteran car racers Miguel Dizon, George Apacible and Stefan Ramirez alternated on the wheel with Enrique Hormillo, Sung-joon “SJ” Park, and Jeff Borja as Auto Performance beat Team GT Radial 1 to the checkered flag by 1 minute and 22.711 seconds after a gruelling 243 laps over the wet 4.2-kilometer circuit.
With team closer Miguel Dizon squeezing every ounce of power from their 3-liter 1995 BMW M3 in a blazing windup, Auto Performance scored its biggest victory yet after a string of three podium finishes in the Philippine En- durance Challenge circuit with a time of 12:05:01.022 hours.
Anchor driver Dom Pastor and GT Radial 1 teammates Gerard Loy, Edward dela Rosa, Uly Maningding and Michael Bryan Co pressed Auto Performance all the way in their Honda Civic EK hatchback but fell short. Still they wrapped up second-place honors a good three laps clear of Parts Pro-Char Porn Racing in a Mazda Miata MX5 ND.
Smart Fuel 2 Race posted the best lap time of 2:26.51 in lap 77 but conked out 36 laps later with engine gremlins in the competition substantially patterned after France’s prestigious Le Mans 24-hour race and organized by Batangas Racing Circuit, Inc.