BOTOLAN, Zambales, Philippines – Edison “Ton-Ton” Dungca of the Angeles City 4-Wheel Drive Club, Inc. topped the first Gov. Jun Ebdane 4x4 Challenge held here over the weekend, besting 23 other offroad racers with an impressive overall time of 5 minutes, 51:40 seconds.
Dungca also clocked the fastest in the final track and championship round with a time of 2:06:36, offsetting his 3:45:04 finish in the two elimination rounds that earned him second place in Day 1 of the two-day event.
Boyie Doblada of the San Jose Del Monte 4-Wheelers Club followed Dungca with an overall time of 6:20:58, while former Pampanga 4th District Rep. Rimpy Bondoc came in third in 8:37:46.
Despite a poor 10th place showing at Track A with 1:48:46, Dungca made up for lost time by finishing Track B with 1:56:18, just a second ahead of Doblada. At Track C, Dungca came up with the shortest time of 2:06:36, a full 19 seconds ahead of the next best time of 2:25:40 posted by JR Bartolome, also of the Angeles City team.
The other racers who made it to the Top 10 after last Sunday’s finals were Jek Sason (fourth) in 9:12:20; Roger Peyra (fifth, 9:32:26), Pol Herrera (sixth, 10:57:08), Rey Herrera (seventh, 12:20:06), JR Bartolome (eighth 18:10:47), Resty Sambilad (ninth, 22:22:34) and Omer Dungca (10th, 33:40:37).
Dennis Nacpil, event secretariat head and track designer, said Omer Dungca, a handicapped (auditory-impaired) racer, clocked the shortest time in Track A and placed fourth in the championship track, but did not finish Track B, giving him an overall time that placed him in the 10th place.
Lone woman contestant Maila Alivia placed third in Track A, sixth in the championship track, but was a DNF on Track B, placing her at 12th place overall.
Gov. Jun Ebdane, who is actively rebranding Zambales as a destination for sports tourism, expressed his pleasure over the outcome of the first event of this kind held in the province.
Ebdane also thanked the 23 racers who came from as far as Bicol, making the event a huge success.
The participants included racers from the Angeles City 4-Wheel Drive Club, Pampanga Off-Roaders Club, San Jose Del Monte 4-Wheelers, Bicol Off-Roaders Club, Land Cruiser Club of the Philippines, Santiago Extreme, Cauayan Off-Road Club, Binangonan Rizal Off-Roaders, and the Suzuki Club.