Living legends, future stars take centerstage

CEBU, Philippines — The living legends of Cebu motorsports particularly in automobile racing shared the stage with the future stars during the Cebu Motorsports Awards 2023 at the grand ballroom of Cebu Grand Hotel recently.

Lorenzo “Lord” Seno, one of Cebu’s racing greats, took a final bow in active racing with a well-deserved a “Lifetime Achievement” award not only for his own accolades but also for his tireless contribution for the growth of the said sport here.

Seno, longtime skipper of Toyota Team Cebu, was supposed to retire after their successful campaign in a national race car series in 2018, but their team manager Robert “John” Velasco and the team’s principal Jose Manuel Cuenco asked him to put on hold his retirement as they bid to rule the national stage anew.

Dominating another national series didn’t come in easy though until Seno found some new recruits and returning race car drivers that vaulted them to an impressive 1-2 finish in the three-part 2023 Toyota Gazoo Racing Vios Cup at Clark International Speedway.

Seno couldn’t ask for more with the overall team championship trophy for Toyota Team Cebu alongside two “adopted” Cebuanos in Russel Cabrera and Jarond Mesina of Iloilo.

The overall crown was based on the overall position of each of the team members under different categories and not a team race.

Cabrera dominated the sporting class, Mesina was first runner-up in the promotional class, while Seno made it to the top 10 in the supersports class that paved the way for Toyota-Cebu’s supremacy.

Toyota-Cebu’s other team manned by Ian Rosales, Alan Palacios and Paolo Ayo took away the overall first runner-up trophy of the same event. Ayo ended second-runner up in the promotional class of the TGR Vios Cup.

Aside from the TGR Vios Cup, Rosales also ruled the GT 150 class of the 2023 Philippine Grand Touring Championships in Luzon.

Meanwhile, Carlo Anton Suarez returned to action in 2023 with a bang, lifting the first runner-up trophy in the GT1000 class of the 2023 Philippine Grand Touring Championships.

And not just that, Suarez also made waves in the grueling 2023 Petron Makabayan Endurance Cup.

Moreover, Suarez along with Johndale Dyenghong, Norris See, Rex Abrenilla and Robert Pangilinan composing Toyota-Cebu’s endurance racing team wound up second runner-up in the overall standings of class 3/Open B.

The other team from Cebu, the Cebu Racing Group powered by Luis King Jr., Jess Anthony Garcia, Curbie Cañete, and Jojo Lloren wound up second runner-up overall in Petron’s Makabayan Cup via the class 1-open A battle.

Aside from car racing, Cebu also got a pool of new talents including girls who did not mind racing against the boys after international karter William John Riley Go.

Among them, however, the likes of Jiggy and Jayden Javier, Ashton Binghay, and Altheo Remedios shined the brightest during the final leg of the Asian Karting Series at Clark Speedway.

Jiggy Javier ruled the junior class over Binghay, while Remedios landed fifth in the junior class as Jayden Javier got the bronze in cadet class.

Binghay may have missed the top spot in the AKS, but he was able to dominate the Formula junior class of the 2023 Kartzone Super Karting Series held in Cebu’s lone raceway in Barangay Kasambagan, Cebu City.

Binghay outdid Gian Pimentel as Jiggy Javier landed third overall.

The younger Javier, Jayden, snatched the overall title of the Formula cadet while cousins Aeden Binghay and Izak Zambo came out second and third overall.

Kartzone also held a 4-hour endurance race in karting last year with Russel Cabrera, Julian Neri, Micheal Jordan, John Dizon and Jarond Mesina’s team reigning supreme.

The night also belonged to Jess Anthony N. Garcia who, like Seno, was honored with a “Lifetime Achievement” award “for his exemplary achievements in motorsports and his unconditional contributions to the growth of Cebuano grassroots racing”.

Furthermore, the Cebu Motorsports Council gave due recognition to all those that have made valuable contributions in honing new talents under Cebu’s karting academy at Kartzone as well as their sponsors who made their events here and in Luzon possible.