MANILA, Philippines - The TRS-Ford Focus Racing Team started its title campaign with a bang behind the dominating performances of new recruits Marcus Wong, Sean Redpath and Bobby Noriega recently in the season opener of the 2010 Philippine Production Car Championship at the Batangas Racing Circuit.
The three drivers bagged three champion trophies, three runner-up honors and a third place finish in the four initial rounds of the event, banking on the racing excellence of the all new 1.8 Ford Focus race cars with the big support of Ford Racing, Castrol, Goodyear Racing, Standard Insurance, OMP, Discovery Suite, Coke Zero, Oakley, Aguila Auto Glass, BusinessWorld, C!Magazine, Fremuff, Dupont, Starbright Bodykits, Ultra Racing, Speedlab, Toptul, Rota Wheels and Weapon R.
Scattered rains drew out the best in Wong who displayed consistency and power, clocking a fast laptime of 2:11.743 to pull ahead of the pack and rule the initial race of the event sanctioned by the Automobile Association Philippines.
Redpath made it a 1-2 finish for TRS-Ford Focus as he came in 20.181 seconds behind his teammate, beating Cyrille Fontaine and his Chevy Cruze that checked in 31.188 seconds shy of Wong’s time.
As the track dried up in the afternoon, both Wong and Redpath got even more confident and yielded another 1-2 feat for the team, with Dean Joson and his Honda Civic checking in close third just 8.479 seconds behind.
Wong, however, faced a setback in Round 3 staged the following day as he and Noriega were slapped with technical infringement.
Redpath rose to the occasion as he unveiled an aggressive rally from fifth place to deliver the third champion trophy for the team over runner-up Arnel Carlos and third placer Dean Joson.
In the afternoon race, Redpath diced with Carlos in the early goings of Round 4 before winding up runner-up just 4.411 seconds behind the latter.
Noriega took third place coming from the back of the grid as he moved up fifth on the first turn and passed two others midway the 10-lap race before checking in 10.990 seconds behind.
Wong’s woes went on in the last race as he figured in an accident on the first lap. He immediately got back on track but all he could salvage was a sixth place finish.
After the first four races, Redpath claimed the overall lead with 51 points, a huge 14-point advantage over second-running Arnel Carlos who earned 37 points.
Despite his miseries on the second day, Wong managed to land third place overall with 35 while Noriega is seventh overall with 17.
“It’s a good start for the team. Despite the hassles, our new recruits made big impressions in this kickoff race and proved their potentials in keeping the championship racing heritage of the Ford Focus and Tuason Racing Team,” said Mike Tuason, the TRS VP for Technical and Operations.
For further details, interested parties may email info@tuasonracing.com or visit http://www.tuasonracing.com or call 817.7795 for inquiries.