The entire auto industry gets together

Automobile manufacturers, importers and distributors, without distinction, get together this Saturday, March 23, in Tagaytay City for a day of fierce but friendly, fun-filled competition. All the major industry players are fielding their corporate teams to pit wits and driving savvy with the goal of finishing with distinction in the first leg of the Caltex 2013 STV Auto Rally Corporate Challenge (STV-ARCC), the only motor sport event where all the members of the local auto industry get to compete against each other.

 The auto rally is jointly organized by Socio-Com Foundation for Asia (Socio-Com) and Sunshine Television (STV) as one of their road safety advocacy projects, simultaneous with the Young Street Smarts (YSS) Road Safety School Tour where they conduct free seminars in schools to help students be safe and responsible while on the road. The organizers believe that the basic rules of the auto rally, which requires unforgiving adherence to traffic laws and regulations especially over-speeding (any violation merits outright disqualification from the competition), more than qualifies it as a road safety event. The motor sport’s basic principle of being “on time, all time” makes a speeding driver in the team a liability more than an asset. The team’s other vital members include a route navigator to guide the driver where to go based on the pictured instructions and international road signs contained in a route book that’s given a few minutes before each vehicle is flagged-off at one minute intervals. A time navigator, on the other hand, will inform the driver if they are “on time” based again on the instructions on the route book that dictates the amount of time that the team should take traveling from one point of the route to the other. Going beyond or short of the required time would mean one demerit for every second off from the prescribed time. To win, it requires perfect team work in skillful route and time navigation and driver’s discipline and right conduct combined with precision driving competence. The team with the least demerits wins. 

With the participating automobile companies considered as major stakeholders of road safety, it’s a small wonder that they continuously fully support the bi-annual event with its participation exclusive to them. Besides, it is also an opportunity for the automobile companies to showcase their current models while safely competing in a non-hazardous motor sport event that pose no danger to participants’ life or limb or even possible damage to their vehicles—perfect for product branding and exposure.

The STV-ARCC is a successful revival of the Tulip Auto Rally that was very popular in Europe during the ‘60s and became a big hit when it was introduced in the Philippines with its name, Tulip, localized to be popularly known as the “Sampaguita” Rally. Some of the local well-known and highly-respected motor sportsmen that actively competed during the motor sport’s glory days included the likes of the late racing legend Pocholo Ramirez, grand prix champion Dante Silverio, departed past presidents of the AAP (Automobile Association of the Philippines) Dodo Ayuyao and Tony Mapa, current AAP president Gus Lagman, multi-titled rally driver and AAP motor sports director Mandy Eduque, AAP icon Johnny Angeles, and top-notched rally navigator Jun Espino, to name only a few, as they are too numerous to be cited here.  

This 4th STV-ARCC is presented by Caltex with Techron. And for this continued support since its 2nd staging; we have the lovely ladies of Chevron Philippines to thank, namely; Veronica “Vero”Pangilinan, Marilen ‘Len”Dalistan and Chai Mendoza. It is being staged in cooperation with SMDC or SM Development Corporation for which we acknowledge the endorsement of Sandro Javier, asst. vice president of WIND Residences, from the property development site of which, we shall flag off the 1st leg of the Caltex 2013 STV-ARCC, which is located very visibly on the highway that runs along the famed Tagaytay Ridge. 

The flag-off ceremonies are scheduled to start at around 9 o’clock in the morning with distinguished guests that include no less than the top local executive of host city Tagaytay, the Honorable Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, top executives of SMDC, representatives of CAMPI, the association of Philippine automobile manufacturers as well as AVID, the group exclusive to automobile importers and distributors, Mandy Eduque, one of the country’s winningest rally drivers and director of the AAP in charge of sports and a host of local auto industry executives and their associates. 

The more than 60 participating vehicles from 17 corporate teams shall go through a route not known to them until a few minutes from flag-off that would take them to the inner, not commonly traveled roads of Tagaytay City and some towns of neighboring Batangas and Cavite provinces.

The team to beat is multi-brand auto industry major player Willy Tee Ten’s MINI Rally Team, the champion of last year’s competition. The STV-ARCC rules state that any team that would win the title thrice, not necessarily in a row, can permanently keep the very prestigious and symbolic trophy of the yearly competition. So far, the STV-ARCC had only one-time champions.

While the past staging was done only once a year, the organizers had to bow down to the persistent clamor to have more. Hence, the 2013 staging will have two legs (Tagaytay in March and Subic in November) with the former being the shorter leg meriting 30% of aggregate scores of the two legs combined and with the Subic leg to account for 70% of the combined scores. 

Some of the brand-new current model vehicles that could be seen participating in the auto rally this Saturday include; Focus and Ranger from Ford Philippines, Pilot, Odyssey and CRV from Honda Cars Philippines, Accent, Santa Fe and Genesis Coupe from Hyundai Asia Resources, Crosswind and DMax from Isuzu Philippines, Sorento, Sportage and Rio from Kia’s Columbian Autocar, CT 2000h, 450h and RX 450h from Lexus-Manila, BT-50 and CX-5 from Mazda’s Berjaya Auto Philippines, Dodge Durango, Chrysler 300C, Mercedes Benz M-Class and Mercedes Benz GLK-Class from Cats Motors, MINI Countryman from British United Automobiles, Montero Sport and Strada from Mitsubishi Motors Philippines, Teana, Almera and XTrail from Nissan Motors Philippines, 3008 Allure, 5008 and 3008 Active from Peugeot’s Eurobrand Distributors, RAV4, Prius-C and Vios TRD from Toyota Motor Philippines, XC60 T5, S60 D3, S80 and XC90 from Volvo’s Viking Cars. As of this writing, other participating Corporate Rally Teams like BMW’s Asian Carmakers, Chevrolet’s Car Covenant Company and Subaru’s Motor-Image Pilipinas still need to submit the official line up of vehicle models that they would field. 

Seeing all these brand-new vehicles on another record-breaking Sampaguita “on time, all the time” Rally starting grid could be a sight to behold in Tagaytay Ridge on Saturday morning. And seeing them crisscross the roads and side streets of the city and adjoining provinces all throughout the day, readily identified with the colorful event stickers on their front doors and vehicle numbers on their windshields, can be an exciting way to spend the day in the “summer capital of the metro.”       

To all you automobile buffs and rally enthusiasts, see you on Saturday in the scenic, cool and clean city of Tagaytay.

Happy Motoring!!!

For comments: motoringtoday-star@stv.com.ph / sunshine.television@yahoo.com