Vios Cup ends in dramatic, nail-biting finish

When Toyota set out to stage an FIA sanctioned street race in the Fort, we all thought they had downed one too many cups of saké. But not only did they manage to pull it off, they managed to over deliver.

Over four kilometers of international spec, FIA-approved armco barriers, concrete blocks and catch fences were brought in and assembled for a single day of racing. Hundreds, if not thousands, worked at putting together a world-class (and not by Makati City Hall standards, either) proper street circuit, complete with fully functioning pits, VIP and VVIP tents, grandstands, concert stage, LED walls and a state-of-the-art production facility to capture it all on HD video.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one that shuddered at the thought of how much money was spent, which invited the question that fell on every single person’s lips that day: why spend all this for one day of racing?

Well it’s simple. It is not for one day of racing, it is for the future of racing.

Toyota has chosen to dig deep to not only revive motor sports in the Philippines, but to take it to the next level and develop a Filipino champion that can represent us in international FIA events overseas. And the only way to do that is to create a racing program that is on par with the rest of the world––and there are no shortcuts to that.

Sure they could have stayed in Clark and Batangas, but those are already captive audiences. They’ve been there, done that. The idea is to bring it to a new audience. And if Mohammed won’t go to the mountain, you bring the mountain to Mohammed.

Over  20,000 people showed up to witness history. And now that the stage was set, it just needed a story. And once again, we got more than we bargained for. I suggest you get yourself a drink.

Jason Choachuy, who has won almost every race this season (he actually won all four, but was penalised after race 2 for overtaking Allan Uy under the yellow flags, which demoted him to 2nd) entered the weekend as championship leader. He held a massive 27- point lead in the championship, dominated the practice rounds, and just needed to finish 5th in both races.

Then it happened. First up he hit the cement barriers in the chicane. Then, on the opening lap of the 8 lap elimination sprint race that would determine his final starting position and which grid he would join (FIA deemed it too dangerous to have 37 cars on the circuit at one time so there was a shootout to split the grids)

As there were two sprint races, one for grid A and one for grid B, this gave Choachuy a track position of 3rd. He just needed to maintain that to pretty much secure the championship. And then the unthinkable happened. Coming down 3 abreast into the first hairpin there was contact between Choachuy and Allan Uy, who lay 2nd in the championship, which retired both cars.

This now meant that they would both fall out of the top 20 and be forced to join grid B, which in turn would no longer give them a chance to score points in the last two races. So , in a nutshell, in one fell swoop, both championships went as flat as the tires they limped back to the pits on.

But every cloud does have a silver lining and this now opened up the championship to 15-year old Luis Gono,  Dominic Ochoa and Pauland Dumlao, who brought a massive fan base with him.

Race one saw the safety car come out twice with multiple collisions, and was eventually won by Dominic Ochoa, who elevated himself to within 12 points of the championship title. With double points being awarded for this special round, another win would seal it for him, so long as Luis Gono came in third or below.

It all came down to race 2. There were technically four contenders for the championship, but the most probable was between Ochoa and Gono. Ochoa, who started the race in second after he was penalized for contact with Dumlao in race 1, got a good start and was challenging for the first corner when all hell broke loose. As there were so many cars and walls and armcos involved, it was difficult to get a picture of whose fault it was, but it mattered little to Dominic, as he was forced out of the race and the championship as well.

To think that Toyota Quezon Avenue entered the final round with both their cars competing for the title. Both came so close, yet so far.

With Ochoa out of the way, the battle came down to Dumlao and Gono, with the youngster holding a 24 -point advantage. It seemed like a slam dunk as Dumlao would need to win the race while Gono just needed to cruise to 5th––which if he did, would be his lowest finish ever. So basically, so long as he stayed out of trouble, he could afford to put it on cruise control.

The race was eventually restarted and halted just as fast when Inaki Araneta was involved in a massive crash on the run up to turn one. This called out the safety car again and red-flagged the race. With less competitors now, Luis Gono’s chances were looking good. Very good. You could almost imagine Toyota calling up the engravers.

Then the unthinkable happened.

With light fading fast and the celebrity/media and grid B still to run, the AAP needed to make an official call and decided to stop the race, which presented an entirely new scenario that nobody could have seen coming or even made up if they tried. Normally, races need to run over 50 per cent of the distance for points to be awarded. But as this race had been red flagged at seven out of 20 laps, it had the stewards digging into the six-inch thick Vios Cup rule book.

So, if it turns out that the race has run enough laps, even with half points being awarded, Luis Gono will be crowned the first ever Vios Cup champion. If, however, it has been declared to have not run enough laps, there’s a possibility of no points being awarded, which would see Jason Choachuy as champion.

I swear, you can’t make this stuff up. This is racing.

The official decision will be announced on November 10 with an awarding ceremony to follow. For a complete list of the results, plus the story of the media and celebrity round, visit www.jamesdeakin.ph.