WINNING seems to become a habit forming for racing father-and-son tandem Carlos and Iñigo Anton.
The Castrol-Yokohama champion racer duo along with teammates Marc Soong, Errol Panganiban, Gabe and Kevin Tayao in a Parts Pro x CarPorn Mazda Miata bucked horrific conditions brought about by the monsoon rains to emerge triumphant in the FM1 class during the four-hour Philippine Endurance Cup in Clark last Independence day.
The team also went on to finish 3rd overall and 2nd in FM1 class in the first ever 12-hour Petron Kalayaan Cup, completing 228 laps around the 4.2 kilometer Clark International Speedway. The heavy rains brought out the safety car almost a dozen times during the event because of the accidents and spins.
“It was a war of attrition on who could stay out the longest without making errors in the rain,” Carlos said after his stint.
Formula 4 driver Gabe Tayao, who was battling a fever, put the team in a winning position early on with a great drive followed by 13 – year - old Iñigo who continued Gabe’s pace taking the wheel for over 2 hours and logging in 50 laps.
Kevin Tayao then led the teams charge adding over 40 laps to the tally, while Errol Panganiban in his first endurance race, kept the team going after Kevin with a strong drive of over an hour on board what was then already being dubbed as the ‘mighty Miata’.
The team’s first problems started during Marc Soong’s stint when the safety belts started to loosen and could no longer be adjusted. Soong braved the conditions and set consistently quick laps putting aside his own safety to keep the team within sight of the podium at the nine hour mark.
The team however could no longer risk Soong’s life and forced him to pit to repair the belt brackets and hand the car over to veteran driver Carlos.
The older Anton tried to make it to the end of the race on one tank but had to come in for a ‘splash and dash’ fuel stop with 20 minutes remaining and settled for 3rd in the overall standings.
“I think we shocked the field finishing that high up in the standing using a basically stock Mazda Miata against full blown race cars,” team manager Billy Billano said after the race. (Roderick Osis)