For the love of the drive

There’s a large trophy wall in his lounge room that could use an extra shelf or two and enough photos and articles of his triumphs to wallpaper the broad side of the pit wall of the old Subic International Raceway, but while history may choose to remember Kookie Ramirez the racer, I will always remember Kookie Ramirez, my friend.

As anyone with even a passing interest in cars would know by now, the motoring community is currently mourning the loss of yet another icon in the local automotive industry. Barely 18 months after the passing of his legendary father Pocholo, Jose Andre “Kookie” Ramirez, a founding editor of C! Magazine and one of the country’s most loved racing personalities, passed away in his home last October 28, after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 52.

It may sound a little presumptuous to expect anyone with “Even a passing interest in cars” to know Kookie, but after dedicating the last 15 years developing local motor sports and dragging it from extinction to distinction, the Ramirez family have become to local motor sports what the Rolling Stones are to Rock n’ Roll.

As one of the other founding editors of C! Magazine, I shared an office with Kookie for nine years. But I probably got to know more of him sharing a car for nine days. It was June of 2004 when I went on my first trip to Europe to cover the launch of the Goodyear Eagle F1 in Mireval, France. Kookie was coming off another trip somewhere in Europe and decided to meet me in Paris where we would drive around the continent for about ten days.

Now, aside from a scheduled BMW driver training program that we would be attending in Munich, I really had no idea what else we were meant to be doing there. And I hate to say this, but I got the feeling that nether did Kookie. But it soon became quite clear that while the destinations were optional, the journey was compulsory. Basically, it really didn’t matter where we were going so long as he was driving. The problem was, I’m much the same way.

Kookie had a 1.6 liter Opel Astra hatch as his test car. As ordinary as it was, it had four wheels and that was enough for Kookie. He appreciated performance cars, of course, but he was never prejudice to them. He just loved to drive. Anything. And prying his fingers off that polyurethane steering wheel would be like prying off the remote control of the TV at the climax of a title deciding F1 race to switch to re runs of Wheel of Fortune.

So I did what any self-respecting motoring editor would have done and organized a test car of my own. Yup. As ridiculous as it sounded, we saw nothing wrong with sharing a hotel room every night but driving several thousand kilometers across four countries in two separate cars. That may seem wasteful to some people, but if you love driving as much as Kookie and I do, having someone drive for you it’s like asking someone to brush your teeth.

But as passenger-phobic as we both were, reality didn’t take long to creep in, and before we knew it, our budget dried up. We had to survive on 100 euro a day between the two of us including gas, food and accommodation. There was no way we could continue with the two cars so we decided to return the Opel and stick with the Seven. Turned out to be the best thing that ever happened.

We were so broke that we had to hunt around every night for the cheapest accommodation possible. It was tough, but it was worth it just to see the faces of the inn keepers after I would haggle with them for 30 minutes to take mercy on a couple of weary and humble travelers like ourselves only to have to finish up by asking for secure parking for our $200,000 Seven Series. And every morning, much to Kookie’s horror, I had to rape the breakfast buffets and literally stuff bread rolls filled with cold meats into my jacket so we had something to eat for lunch.

But all of our sacrifices were self-inflicted and done solely to keep us on the road and behind the wheel. And it was that pure and uncorrupted passion that Kookie had for everything he did that couldn’t help but inspire people and what undoubtedly made him such a great teacher. Things were always kept fairly simple with Kookie. Right was right, wrong was wrong; and as much as he valued victory, he never judged you on whether you won or lost, but only on how you played the game.

Thanks for sharing the wheel with me, Kookie.

We at The Philippine STAR editorial offices had to wait and stretch our deadline as much as we could as James labored through this particular edition of Backseat Driver. On a Monday holiday, no less. But it was a very small sacrifice because just like James, we loved Kookie and lost a dear friend in the man everyone in our community respects. We will miss Kookie and our love and gratitude go out to his family, who have always stood for the most pure of all our intentions. We work hard everyday to bring you, our readers, our best efforts, because just like Kookie, we love being behind the wheel – and we love sharing our passion to you. Thank you for everything, Kookie Ramirez. You will be greatly missed... In the meantime, here are a couple of your Backseat Driver reactions from last week’s “Motorcycles: Transportation means or menace?” by Kap Maceda Aguila…

Good article. I’d ride a bike if it were safe and healthy (with all the pollution). ?So what do we fix first? Reckless bikers or reckless bus drivers? Buses take more space than bikes, so I think we should start with the bigger vehicles and work our way down. I really believe we should start removing colorum and reckless buses first. Then move on to jeeps. That would free up space for private vehicles and bikes. Disciplining motorists on a less congested road would probably be easier than a free for all like what we have now. – smoothe

Sir, I beg to disagree; the root cause of the carnage on our roads is the LACK of DISCIPLINE – motorists, pedestrians and worst of all, the police and traffic enforcers, and people in authority; they contemptuously ignore the rules of the road when it doesn’t suit them. – Bruks_pt