Top guns lose sparkle in PTCC leg

MANILA, Philippines -  Unheralded riders zoomed into the spotlight, relegating to the sidelines the big guns in Division 2 races recently in the second leg of the 2012 Philippine Touring Car Championship Series at the Clark International Speedway.

Jeff Borja of Seaoil-Darkside Racing Team, Douglas Maningding of Explorer Motorsports and Leo San Juan of Nissan Commonwealth-Tuason Racing each nailed down a win in separate races of this event organized by the Automobile Association Philippines and promoted by Philippine Race Car Driver’s Inc. and co-presented by Tiarra Commercial (Kumho tires) in partnership with Seaoil Extreme 97, 2Go Travel, Speedlab, Forex, Promethium, Velocity Motors, Honda Cars Caloocan and Aeromed Ambulance Transport.

But the brewing rivalry between Maningding and San Juan is expected to make the coming races a lot tougher.

After winning Race 3 in the kickoff leg, Borja made it back to back as he controlled the tempo in Race 4 before wrapping up the nine-lap race in 21 minutes, 59.240 seconds, 14.786 seconds ahead of runner-up John Mark Ong of Ethanworx Racing.

But San Juan and Maningding figured in a collision that dragged them to third and fourth, respectively. The incident resulted in a damaged rear fender on the Nisan Sentra of San Juan who was given a black and orange flag as the damage posed potential danger to other drivers.

Good thing, San Juan was spared the stiffer sanction of getting disqualified as he made sure he finished ahead of Maningding.

Borja continued his domination in Race 5 before an engine problem blew up his bid for a three-race sweep. Maningding won that race in 21:42.836. Ong and Allen Macaraig of Maptan Racing checked in third and fourth. Borja finished fifth.

Race 6 turned into an intense duel between San Juan, who paced the first seven laps, and Maningding, who stuck close all the way and took over in the eighth only to yield the lead to San Juan who won with a .233 second margin in 22:1.954.