BECAUSE I covered the Vios Cup since its inception three years ago (I had written about it even when it was still on the drawing boards), I will again cover it today (Saturday) at Clark International Speedway in Pampanga.
The event, held for four weekends yearly since 2014 in four divisions featuring all sorts of talents in motor sports, has had its Visayan stint, too. Ah, that Cebu bash stirred memories lasting a lifetime. Sure, Ray Butch “Elvis” Gamboa, Shawin ChuaLim and Danny “Sir John” Isla know what I mean.
I simply love history.
When I was in high school—and that wasn’t a long time ago (ahem!)—I always topped our Monday 100-item quizzes in History (ahem! again). Mostly, I’d score a perfect hundred, earning me each time a menudo sandwich at the canteen—courtesy of my beaten (always, that is) classmate, who loved challenging my ability to top the Monday quizzes given by Ms. Ma. Luisa Bautista (may God rest her soul).
OK, more history?
It was Michonobu “The Rocker” Sugata, who fathered the Vios Cup.
Sugata, then the president of Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP), was a frustrated racer himself. A Formula One diehard.
So enamored Sugata-san was with motor racing that his first ride was a sports car—the iconic Toyota 86.
“The 86 was my first car, which I bought after saving enough money working at Toyota Motors in Tokyo,” Sugata said to me when the 86 was launched at Clark a while back. “After I sold it, I knew that was the biggest mistake of my life.”
To prove his undying love for motor racing, Sugata-san was a participant in his own babe, the Vios Cup blastoff in 2014. He would next join all weekend races, missing just one this year but only because work had butted in.
But he was back in the last third weekend race, dueling against Satoru Suzuki, the guy who succeeded him at TMP. They didn’t finish well—but then, yes, it’s not in the winning but in how they raced: Friendly all the way.
I wish they see action again today. That’d be fun once more. Isn’t having fun the essence of competition—especially among the elderly?
Why is Sugata-san called “The Rocker?”
He can sing, and can croon “Another One Bites The Dust” a la Freddie Mercury.
“Hotel California?” Its lead guitar is chicken feed to Sugata-san.
(alsol47@yahoo.com)