A great day to be “on time all the time”

Everybody who was involved in the 1st leg of 2014 Caltex STV Auto Rally Corporate Challenge (STV ARCC) happily woke up to a dawn of a perfect day for rallying last Saturday and eagerly trooped to Tagaytay Highlands, this year’s flag-off venue.  

A total of 35 vehicles fielded in by 11 corporate teams from the country’s top automobile manufacturers and importers slowly filled the rally event’s parc ferme at the parking area of the Highlands Steak House from as early as 7am.

AAP’s (Automobile Association Philippines) Mandy Eduque, one of the country’s most awarded rally drivers and currently the country’s top honcho for motorsports representing the FIA (Federacion Internacional Automobile), the world’s motorsports governing body once again made some very encouraging remarks during the opening ceremonies regarding Sunshine TV’s very successful revival of the sport. He also administered the aptly-worded Oath of Sportsmanship among the participants and then gamely flagged-off under the warm early morning sun all the participating vehicles.  

Tagaytay Highlands’ top executive for promotions and marketing, Philip Medina, who capably arranged all the preparations at the venue, which formed part of Tagaytay Highlands Country Club’s 20th anniversary activities, warmly welcomed all the participants and team managers together with auto industry executives and motor sports enthusiasts who all came to scenic Tagaytay City to witness the flag-off ceremonies.

The rally route, which was designed and plotted by Georges Ramirez and wife Caroline with IT expert Patrick Chua providing the technical expertise, included passage not only in Tagaytay City but also through a couple of areas in Batangas and Cavite and we have all the Honorable Mayors of these areas to thank for the rally’s safe and easy passage, namely; Mayor Virgilio Varias of Alfonso, Cavite, Mayor Charisma M. Alilio of Lemery, Batangas, Mayor Gerry Natanauan of Talisay, Batangas and Mayor Antonio “Utol” Halili of Tanauan, Batangas.

Of course we have the Congressman of Tagaytay City, Representative Bambol Tolentino for again graciously hosting the event basically for its road safety value as well as its tourism significance. There’s also the Tagaytay City’s very capable and easy to work with Administrator, Engineer Gregorio Monreal for his “hands on” support to ensure the successful staging of the event.

Considering the auto industry’s full schedule of events this month, we decided to just hold the awarding of the winners right after the event, at the Tagaytay Convention Center, which was also the lunch stopover of the rally. And while in the distinguished company of Lexus Manila president, Danny “Sir John” Isla and EVP Toshihiko Hiranuma; president of Honda Cars Philippines, Toshio Kuwahara; Mazda Philippines’ VP for Customer Relations, Dave Macasadia; Volkswagen Philippines marketing director, Arnel Doria; Isuzu Philippines SVP for Business Development, Art Balmadrid; and veteran syndicated sports and motoring columnist, Al “Sir Paul” Mendoza, the long wait for the participants to come back from the rally and the final tabulation of the results was a breeze especially as it was enhanced by the “influential” company of some of the top brands of “single malt” whiskey. Of course, with all these gentlemen being practicing advocates of road safety, none of them drove as all of them decided to drink, and to drink “only for the fine and illustrious company” all throughout the day.  

For those who may not still know, the STV ARCC is a revival of the “on time all the time” rally that was known as the Tulip Rally in Europe, where it originated. When it was introduced in the Philippines with its glory days in the 60s, some nationalists in the ranks of the country’s motorsports enthusiasts renamed it as the “Sampaguita Rally” to lend some local color to the motor sport. This particular motorsport event is not speed-based but relies more on precision driving, route navigation and time management—the team crew (driver/time navigator/route navigator) that comes closest to the prescribed or allotted time to travel from one point to another gets the least number of demerits, which is one demerit for every second of discrepancy (faster or slower), perfect or exact time means no demerits. In between designated points, there are unannounced checkpoints to register your time at that particular point to find out if you are “on time.” Theoretically, if you are given 10 minutes to travel from point A to point B, you would have traveled 5 minutes in between these 2 points to be “on time.” After the rally, the team crew of the car that gets the least number of demerits, which means they have been “on time all the time,” wins.

The STV ARCC is actually a fund-raising project of Socio Com (Social Communications Foundation for Asia) in collaboration with STV (Sunshine Television) to help their advocacy to promote road safety. The proceeds are used to sustain the road safety seminars (Young Street Smarts Road Safety School Tour) that are conducted to secondary students in schools located in Metro Manila and adjoining provinces. Combined with donations from the Chevron Philippines, Air21 (courier service) together with car companies that have confirmed their participation for this school year like Toyota Motor Philippines and Columbian Autocar, exclusive distributors of  Kia (while we await for the confirmation of long-time supporters like Cats Motors (Mercedes Benz), Asian Carmakers (BMW), Lexus Manila, Covenant Car Company (Chevrolet), Audi Philippines, as well as those from MNTC-NLEX and PCSO) the funds are used to produce and yearly update the audio-visual teaching modules, subsidize the TV production and airing of the highlights of each seminar, underwrite costs of safety instructors and rental of equipment being used in the seminars and other draining expenses relative to conducting the seminars.

Within its five-year staging, the STV ARCC’s 2nd staging in 2011 registered the record-setting biggest starting grid of 63 cars in the history of the Sampaguita Rally and possibly in the country’s motorsports history. Holding the 1st leg in the midst of summer this year instead of the usual 1st Saturday of March, produced a much-reduced number of starters mainly because most of the corporate teams have their own summer events to prepare for. Well, it’s probably back to the old schedule next year.

There were some notable feats made last Saturday, like the perfect time (zero demerits) registered in the Alpha Stage or during the morning run by Car #21 of the Toyota Rally Team (Ulysses Ang/Neil Pagulayan/Wayne Tulio) on Checkpoint #2 and also that achieved by Car #25 of the Ford Rally Team (Roderick Bautista/JR Valencia/Errol Pua) on Checkpoint #6.

While in the Beta Stage or the afternoon run Car #34 of the Honda Rally Team (Steven Yu/Mike Potenciano/Lindy Pellicar) similarly registered a perfect time on Checkpoint #1.

The STV ARCC has two sets of awards, one set for Individual and the other for Team.

The Alpha Stage’s Individual award went to Mini Team’s Car #8 (Eric Valera/Maochi Aurelio/Jic Valera) with 312 demerits while the Team award went to the Subaru Rally Team with a team total of 1,335 demerits

The Beta Stage’s Individual award went to Toyota Team’s Car #32 (Miko Hernandez/Uzzi Asuncion/Joel Penalosa) with 216 demerits while the Team award went to the Toyota Rally Team with 785 demerits.

The Caltex STV Auto Rally Corporate Challenge overall winners for the 1st Leg (Tagayaty City) are the following:

A. Individual winners

1ST Place– Car #8 (Eric Valera/Maochi Aurelio/Jic Valera) Mini

2nd Place – Car #25 (Roderick Bautista/JR Valencia/Errol Pua) Ford

3rd Place – Car #20 (Brian Buencamino/Michael Manzanillo/Brian Zarzuela) Subaru

B. TEAM WINNERS

1st Place – Subaru Rally Team (2,239 demerits)

2nd Place – Toyota Rally Team (3,003 demerits)

3rd Place – Honda Rally Team (3,510 demerits)

The rules of the STV ARCC give 30% value to the 1st leg while the 2nd leg, which we shall again hold in Subic shall carry 70%. They also provide that any rally team that wins the overall championship 3 times, not necessarily consecutively, shall permanently keep the prestigious STV ARCC Championship Trophy. To date, two teams, the Subaru Team and the Mini Team, with 2 championships each, are closest to permanently claiming the trophy. The Subaru Team won the 1st staging held in 2010 followed by the Ford Team in 2011 and a two-year consecutive win by the Mini Team in 2012 and 2014.  

We thank Chevron Philippines (Caltex with Techron) for the continuing support for the STV Auto Rally Corporate Challenge, which is part of their commitment to promote road safety.

Happy Motoring!!!

For comments email [email protected] / [email protected].