Millet cousins propel North racers

MANILA, Philippines - Dragsters from the North reigned supreme over their South counterparts behind the impressive wins of cousins Arvin and Jannery Millet of TEMZ-Auto Mart recently in the “North Meets South:  The All-Philippine Drag Racing Invitational” at the Clark International Speedway Drag Strip.

The Tarlac-based Millet cousins already accounted for four of the seven titles at stake which was enough to assure the North Team of victory in this event sanctioned by the Automobile Association Philippines and sponsored by Petronas Lubricants, Batangas Racing Circuit and Clark International Speedway.

Arvin Millet displayed an impressive show of force in capturing the Pro Class crown over John Kalaw of H3 Autoworks and former US Serviceman John Ryzia of AHRA-Garage Power as he later emerged champion in  the All-Motor run.

Showing he has come of age, Arvin turned back Joseph Gener Manalo of RSL Motorsports in the first round, upstaged Ryzia on his 1967 Camaro V8 muscle car to barge into the finals and shattered the hopes of much-favored Kalaw who was eyeing a complete turnaround for the title after staging a big comeback from the loser’s circle.

Jannery is fast rising as another young future champion like cousin Arvin who’ll continue the growing popularity of drag racing in the country when he clinched the Expert plum over runner-up and TEMZ-Auto Mart teammate Errol Miranda and third placer Edward Guino.

He later copped the Sportsman title over runner-up Winston Lloyd Tan Loang of BCDE and former Sportsman champion Lennel Diaz.

Surprisingly, this invitational race turned out much tougher than the encounters in the regular drag racing series as both six-time titlist Jonathan Tiu of JCT-Blanche Racing and defending champion Martin Manalo hardly made it to the finals.

Tiu experienced engine problems that barred him from joining the Quick 8 battle and was also booted out early to wind up only third in the Super Pro division behind champion and JCT-Blanche Racing teammate Jayson Ong who clocked 11.718 seconds to narrowly escape against runner-up Teofilo Edwin Cayco of H3 Autoworks who submitted 11.727 seconds.

The day belonged to Pepi Santos who emerged the Quick 8 champion with a fast quarter-mile time of 9.603 seconds over H3 Autoworks teammates Jerome Cabreros and John Kalaw.

Equally impressive was the triumph of lady driver Jeannette Go, widow of the late Pro champion Anthony Go, who beat all her male rivals in winning the Hotstreet crown over Ramon Go Jr. of Mohspeed and Sonny Goyena of Team Ready.

For further details, interested parties may contact the Batangas Racing Circuit c/o Nelson Gayola or Rodini Rivera at (632) 729-72 41-42, 729-5365 or fax 844-7766, Mobile # 0922 8858410 or like us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/ <http://www.facebook.com/> Batangas Racing Circuit.