Portugal Yokohama GT champ; Coseteng falls

MANILA, Philippines - Dondon Portugal stole the limelight on his comeback stint while Jody Coseteng suffered another big blow recently in the third leg of the 2013 Yokohama Philippine Grand Touring Car Championships at the Clark International Speedway.

Portugal, the newly reelected Mayor of Taysan, Batangas,  missed action in the first two legs but  got the lucky breaks for his GT300 victory in the final race.

After bagging runner-up honors behind Coseteng in the sprint race, Portugal turned the tide in his favor  when Coseteng sideswiped Willy Torres’ car at the first turn of the main race.

 The contact damaged Coseteng’s oil cooler and caused an oil leak that slowed down his car and eventually forced his early exit from the race.

Portugal managed to slip past the collision and took control from thereon, running at a fast laptime of 2:12.079 as he wrapped up the 15-lap race in 33:57.479, more than a minute ahead of Torres.

Racing judge Bayani Vargas took overall third to claim the GT200 crown as car problems also forced the father-son tandem of Arnel and Dwight Kevin Carlos to quit early.

Luckily for Coseteng, frontrunning Peter Kim of S-Oil Racing failed to suit up in lieu of his stint in the South Korean Championship race.  Coseteng hiked his total to 80 points to move just 15 points behind Kim.

Sharing the limelight were Lowie Jean Panlican and Emerson Ocampo who topped their respective groups in the ‘Sparco Bracket Circuit Racing’.