Tan zooms ahead in Phimos series

MANILA, Philippines — Andre Tan produced an authoritative pole-to-pole victory in Race 3 and a strong second-place windup in Race 4 to seize the overall lead after two rounds of the 2019 Petron Philippine Motorsports Championships (Phimos) series at the Batangas Racing Circuit recently.

Tan, a 22-year-old fresh graduate of international business at Ateneo’s European Studies Program, pipped the veteran Milo Rivera and defending champion Edwin Rodriguez off a safety car restart for top honors in the first race of the premier Yokohama Grand Touring 200 class.

He came back the next day to clinch his third runner-up finish in four starts, this time to Rodriguez in the wet-and-wild second race that race marshalls shortened due to heavy rains.

Lewy Manio ruled the GT 150 class’ second race over Russ Agapito after placing runner-up to Justin Neri overnight to widen his lead in the series with 67 points while Carlo Angelo Mojica extended his victory streak to four in the GT 100 and Rookie classes for 80 points.

Other series leaders—Philmini and Classic Cup: Rodney Caballero (Open Pro and Overall), Ferdie Raquel Santos (1275-A), Raffy Locson (1275-B), Rudy Bunag (1000cc).