Floirendo, Silverio rule motorsports festival

SUBIC – Vincent Floirendo and Jojo Silverio of Mazdaspeed displayed superb driving skills to emerge as the overall champion in the BF Goodrich Enduro – centerpiece event of the Philippine Motorsports Festival – at the Subic International Raceway.

Floirendo, who also topped last year’s event in partnership with George Ramirez, teamed up with Silverio this time and steered their 1996 model Mazda to impressive, come-from-behind victory in this four-hour long endurance race organized by the Sports Values, Inc. and sponsored by Ford Motor, FedEx and Asiagate.

Floirendo and Silverio finished with a total time of four hours, 18 minutes and 16.219 seconds in 132 laps in this long and demanding 2.8 km. course in this former American naval base.

"The car is in good condition for this kind of race and Vincent and I did not have much trouble during the four-hour competition. It was nice to win again," said Silverio, whose last victory in this course came in the same enduro race in 1997 in tandem with Rene Mapua.

Lee Bumgarner and the celebrity duo of Tonton Gutierrez and Mon Christopher of Shell-MP Turbo finished second with a time of 4:16:50.518 in the 129 laps, while the all-female team of Michelle Pritchard and Menchie Francisco of PCSO-SRA came in third with a time of 4:17:56/912 in 125 laps.

A big letdown was the team of Enzo and Tom Pastor of Team TEC, which finished only sixth overall despite leading in the early part of the race.

Also failing to make the grade was the team of Mike Potenciano, George Apacible and Terry Fullerton of Shell-MP Turbo, which was relegated to seventh place.