Gearing up for Vios Cup

Atty. Jerome G. Neri
The Scrutineer

I WAS there with Team Toyota Cebu City for their second race in the Toyota Vios Cup. It can be recalled that the first race of the team was in Round 2, which was held at the SRP here in Cebu some months ago.

During the debut race of the Cebuanos, they were 3-4 seconds off the pace of the front runners of the series, all of whom already had a year of experience. Team Toyota Cebu realized that they had a mountain to climb to get up to speed with the front runners of the series.

To be quick in a one-make race such as the Vios Cup, there is only one way to do it, and that is track time, lots of track time. The problem with Team Toyota Cebu is that there is no racetrack to practice here in Cebu, while their rivals have over a year of experience. To get up to speed, it was important for them to get some real race track experience in their own race cars. But because the race tracks are in Luzon, we had to think of a good program so as to have an efficient and effective session.

Team Toyota Cebu had a two-day practice session at the Clark International Speedway in the middle of August. To make the most of it, four cars set up differently were brought where the drivers had to share the driving duties. Setting up the cars differently was the quickest way to gather data. Luckily for the team, all the drivers were on the same page, and they preferred the same base setup. This meant working on the cars would be a lot easier.

After getting the base setup, the driver’s continued getting track time in mixed weather conditions. Basing on the times of the frontrunners who were also practicing, our drivers were still around 2 seconds off the pace. For day two of the practice, I sought the help of the best race car driver I knew, Stefano Marcelo, who willingly helped our drivers improve on their skills.

Stefano let them ride shotgun with him for a number of laps so our drivers could see what he was doing. It was immediately apparent that the shortcoming of our drivers was in the footwork, more particularly the way they applied the brakes and the gas pedal. Proper use of the brakes and application of the gas pedal play a significant part in the balance of the car going through a corner, and thereby affect handling. When the brakes are pressed, weight is transferred forward, and when the gas pedal is applied, weight is transferred backwards.

The practice session gave significant improvements to Team Toyota Cebu’s drivers. They were headed into their second race with a lot more confidence, which was held at the Manila Bay Circuit.

The Manila Bay Circuit is a street course setup by the Tuason Racing School for round three of the Toyota Vios Cup in the Mall of Asia area in Manila. The track was well paved, wide, fast but with bottleneck chicanes. The track was a whole lot wider than the SRP Circuit that the drivers felt more comfortable.

During the practice sessions, the pace was good for Team Toyota Cebu with Jette Calderon being in the top five out of 48 drivers. Sean Velasco was 2 seconds slower but said he still had a lot left as he was not pushing his car to the limits yet. Oscar Suarez, Lord Seno and Bobby Pangilinan were doing great times for the promotional class: they were all in the top ten of their class.

Qualifying was a disaster for both Calderon and Velasco. They both qualified about 3 seconds off the pace. Calderon had tire issues, while Velasco could not get a clean lap as there were a lot of slower cars in front of him. They were 13th and 14th with Velasco being the top Team Toyota Cebu Qualifier in the Sporting Class. As for the promotional class, our drivers qualified well with Lord Seno in 3rd, Suarez in 6th and Pangilinan in 7th.

For the Sporting Class, race 1 was a complete disaster. It was total carnage. Calderon was punted from behind, sending him to the barriers, while Velasco moved up to 6th place, posting very competitive times until he was black flagged as his bumper was dragging on the road from contact with another car. In race 2, Calderon was not able to start the race because the damage to his car could not be repaired. Velasco finished 10th.

The Promotional Class was a different story. Lord Seno led more than half of the race and ended up finishing second in race 1. Suarez and Pangilinan had strong finishes too, well within the top 10. In race 2, Seno was 4th while Suarez and Pangilinan were in the top 10.

Despite the bad luck our top driver’s had, the improvement in outright pace is there, and I am confident of good results on the final leg in November. From what I have seen we may even have two title contenders for next season.