Ornopia shifts from motocross to underbone circuit

MOTOCROSS organizer Lou Ornopia will call it quits and will end his pet project—the MS Motosuit Motocross Series—at the end of the year.

And after the annual awarding rites in January 2013, the series that started in 2004 and has brought motocross racing to the mountain barangays and far-flung municipalities will be no more.

“Motocross is my passion. I organized events because I wanted it to live and survive. Now, that there are already a lot of organizers who can organize and handle it well, I decided to leave it and look after my business,” Ornopia told Sun.Star Cebu.

Although there is still one more race that is part of MS Motosuit Series legs—the Carcar City race—Ornopia will no long er take part in it.

“I delegated the organizing of the Carcar race to Jonas (Adlawan). But I will still be very supportive of motorcross. I’ll be lending my support to them. And in January, the awarding ceremony will be grander than ever, since it would be the last. We will hold it at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino,” Ornopia said.

But motocross’ loss is circuit racing’s gain as Ornopia is shifting his sights to the urban setting and will hold a five-leg underbone circuit.

“This is a business decision. Since I am exclusive distributor for FDR Tires in Cebu, then I might as well use this opportunity to promote both the product and the sport. We have a lot of Cebuanos who have the potential in these sports and with this race, we hope to discover more and younger riders in our races,” Ornopia said.

Ornopia and his partner, Charlie Ong, launched the FDR-MS Motosuit Grand Prix Series in Cafe Laguna at The Terraces in Ayala Center last Thursday.

The categories are the Open, Beginners Automatic 130cc, Underbone superstock 100-125cc, Novice AT 160cc, UB 130cc, Intermediate/Expert AT Open and UB 130cc.