First of all please forgive me for having a lack of a better title.  The creative hat was off when I decided on the name of my site.

Anyway this is my personal racing blog.  Racing is pure passion and I can't imagine myself not doing it.  I simply wanted to have a record of how it started hoping that after a significant amount of time I can appreciate how far it has been for me from being a simple tuner to hopefully a professional racing driver.  Right now I appreciate writing this since even though its just almost 2 years since I got into it seems like I've gone through quite a lot but there's just so much more to come.  For me this is my diary, something to keep so I don't forget what I've been through.  For others, well I guess more than just something hopefully you'd find interesting to read or maybe a realization that racing is definitely more than people running dangerously fast on the street (that's a lot of fun, but not exactly smart) and not as expensive or impossible as you'd initially think it would be.

Recent updates

Run What You Brung Extreme 2-1-2009 

The 1st RWYB Extreme was absolutely a great event! Actually I think it was a good thing I wasn't able to run my S2000 since the arrive-and-drive TRS cars were more than enough to provide me with RWYB thrills... [more]

Getting Sponsors for 2009 (1.25.09)

2009 Philipppine GT season is coming soon and I've just got word that taking this year's title won't be any by far especially comparing to the 2008 season where I started.  The thing was in the 2008 season there wasn't any real competitors, the people who joined the GT300 class were guys with powerful cars and wanted to experience wheel-to-wheel action.  It wasn't anywhere close to the competitive level that of the GT200 and GT125 class.

Updates 1-8-09

Ok its been awhile since I've updated this.  But I really haven't done any racing or real driving for a long time.  This was because my Silvia was waiting for new suspension and tires and the S2000 on the other hand was waiting for its tax issue to be fixed.  I also got tired of driving and abusing my 307 around the track... [more]

Supercar Sunday 1-2-2009 

It's been awhile since I've udpated my blog but this event just got me back writing.  It's hard to ignore such an event.

Anyway a friend of mine (JV) texted me that there's going to be another funrun which sorta marks the end of...

Freak accident, STAR tollway on my S2000 (8-24-08) 

Jeck and I was headed to BRC.  As he just got into the racing bug (karting) I thought that it would also be a good experience for him to go around a really nice race track and since I needed the practice I decided that we should head over to the Batangas Racing Circuit.

As we left the house at about 830am and it was raining already.  I remember telling Jeck that the rain should make it fun at the track since although it wont make for fast laps it would be fun to slide the car around a bit.  But I only do that on the 1st turn of BRC since its the safest place to do it.

My first drive of a real GT car - The Maserati Coupe  (3-9-2008)

 Trackhos was supposed to go to BRC that day but I was informed by a friend of mine who was from the area that construction right where the church was caused heavy traffic going to BRC so instead the guys decided to just do an early breakfast run.  Well basically I found it to be "bitin" and knowing that it was the Ferrari-Jaguar trackday at BRC I decided to head back home, get my S14 and brave the traffic going to BRC.  I wanted to test my S14 also since I just had the gasket fixed at the time and wanted to check if the repair was good as it was a recurring problem for me.

 A well worth trip actually as apart from seeing old friend and racing idol Kookie Ramirez with wife Menchie I got to see some amazing machines on the track.  It was actually a full weekend at the time as it was also the trackday of the TACP group along with a media test of the new Miata. [more...]

Philippine GT 2008 2nd tune up race  (2-16/17-2008)

Finally the car fixed and all ready to go. I promised this time I would do justice to my car and drive her the way it should be driven. Practice was great, I hit the sweet spot for my tire pressure as well as the suspension settings. I was learning the limits of my brakes and braking much later than I did the last race and going faster on each corner.

Then disaster struck! I cant believe I blew my exhaust gasket again! No boost and my car was overheating prematurely. I decided to run qualifying however since I had been running my car before even with an exhaust leak... bad idea really. But I was able to post a qualifying time of 2:09 seconds, I was satisfied with that considering my car was around 100hp down (an N/A S14 is 160Bhp, my car is rated at 214Whp which approximately translates to about 260Bhp). It was a very disappointing weekend as I was really looking[more...]

Financial constraints - the big reality for independent racers (8-14-2008)

Here's the big reality of racing.  And its finances.  Racing is not cheap, especially the platform I chose which was a big RWD sportscar so therefore I had to run on atleast 17 inch tires (tires for 17 inch wheels cost almost double that for 15 inch wheels).  Also turbocharged cars will generally have a lot more reliability issues than naturally aspirated cars.  If I was running time-attack events all the time that wouldn't be much of an issue since you'd only be going flat out for 2 laps.  But since I want to be competitive in the GT race my car had to be able to run 13 laps in the morning and 30 in the afternoon. [more...]

The Manila 701 2008 @ Citykart (7-19/20-2008)

The Crazy Race!  I've told people that running 10 minutes in a kart is tough enough which is about 9-11 laps depending how fast you are and if they're using the short or long track.  Why is it called Manila 701?  Because its actually a race to whoever gets to 701 laps!  Thats good for about 12 hours which actually was about the duration of the race.  To add excitement they've placed obstacles around the track to "simulate" the conditions here in the Philippines (exaggerated of course) i.e. dropping of balloons to simulate ashfall, turning of the lights for brownouts, showers around the track for heavy rains, etc.  There was 7 of us in our team (Team Siemens) and I think we were highly competitive.  Anyway click the title for full report.

Being the Navigator at the Rallysprint Pilipinas final leg 2008 (5-31-2008)

Final leg of the Rallysprint but only our second time to Rally.  And if you read about the first one you'll see that it didn't exactly go the way we wanted it, to be exact the car didn't stop fast enough before we fell into the ditch ending our race.

Speaking of falling into a ditch (sorry Jan I just have to tell the story hehe, won't be the same without it).  I was planning to head up to Subic Friday after lunch because knowing Jan he won't be practicing in the morning anyway hehe.  But thursday night around 7pm I think I get a call from Jan.  First thing I hear when I pick up the phone was "Pare di na talaga ako natuto" (dude I never learned).  You guessed it, Jan launched himself again into the woods.  I can't blame him though, one thing great about Jan is his will to win at race events even if it means practicing by yourself... in the middle of nowhere... it total darkness where no one can find you... believe me, we did a night run before and it was freaky.  But if you want details on that story you'd have to ask him to tell it.  [more...]

2nd leg Philippine Hillclimbclub Race - Morong Zambales (4-28-2007)

Hillclimb is basically what it says it is.  Its taking your car as fast as you could to climb a hill.  It sounds scary and dangerous because thats what it really is.  Although in terms of fun factor this is just off the charts as the hillclimb is still one of the most exciting kind of motorsport I have participated in.  Imagine rally driving without the navigator.  Going flat out up winding mountain roads with the cliff right there at your side.  It's no joke, one mistake can send you flying (literally).  But there's a huge sense of achievement when you've completed it.Prior to this my only race experience was Run What You Brung.  And as compared to circuit driving where you concentrate on repetetive corners the hillclimb is different since you only have a few runs to master the track.[more...]

 Features

My First Race - 1st leg of the Run What You Brung 2007 3-4-2007

Run What You Brung (or RWYB) is really where I started my racing career, as it was for a lot of racers here in the Philippines.  To give you an idea its basically a time-attack event where you can literally.. well... run whatever car you brung.  And people take that to the letter, I've seen bone-stock Kia Picantos and Hyundai Getz run this event and I'm sure they were all equally fun. I remember my first race, it was going to be the first time I'll run Hitomi (thats what I call my S14) after she was built.  This was my first time to run in Subic International Raceway (SIR) and my second time on a racetrack (Batangas Racing Circuit for a shoot of [more...]

My First Crash!!!  Happy birthday to me! (12-2-2007)

Happened in the R-Bend of the Batangas Racing Circuit. I locked my tires, I think because its a bad combination of upgraded brakes (calipers / steel braided brake lines / brake fluid) worn and not too grip tires, no ABS, and ofcourse (maybe only a bit? hehehe) driver error. I didnt brake that hard though, just tried to be slightly aggressive (but not even close to how hard I brake with my S2000 or with the Tuason Ford Focus student race cars)and I was surprised I locked my tires easily, went straight into the tire wall. Thankfully only cosmetic damage, even the intercooler pipings were well in place. Was even able to drive the car home. 

Funny thing about this was it was on the day of my birthday [more...]

 Philippine GT 2008 1st tune up race (Hitomi's first taste of wheel-to-wheel action) (1-12/13-2008)

First taste of an official wheel-to-wheel race of my S14 race car. I had just installed my Federal 595SS, my Titan Kais brake pads were relatively new and I've already broken in my 1.5-way LSD. My car was ready for action... well sort of atleast.

Diamond Rent a Car - Run What You Brung 2007 (5-27-2007)

The second round of the 2007 Run What You Brung season and the first round of the Diamond Rent a Car sponsored RWYB series.

It was a logical thing to do and win-win for everyone.  I enjoyed the 1st round of RWYB so much and our company was in need of some PR so I decided to talk to Kookie about a sponsorship deal for the RWYB series.  The Ramirez family of racers are amazing that they do it for the love of the sport and its development which SIR and the SVI races do really which is develop Philippine motorsport especially at the grassroots level.