INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines – After claiming the title in the recent China-Sanya International Off-road 4x4 challenge electric winch category, the Team Land Rover Philippines is set to prove their strength in the upcoming Rainforest Challenge 2009 Malaysia.

Powered by veteran off-roaders Hilario "Typhoon Larry" Mendiola and Sergio "Atoy" Jamilla, the Team Land Rover Philippines who also won the "First Island Entry Award" is gearing up for another battle on December 5-14 to be held at Johor Bahru.

Learning from their recent China-Sanya Challenge, Mendiola, the head driver, said:

"This time, we have to really earn points and make sure that our opponents won't get any nearer to us and unlike before that we considered the safety of our engine so we could give our full strength on the remaining days of the competition."

He noted that they could have won second place in the overall ranking if other teams weren't given extra points.

Mendiola said that in his three years of experience in the 4x4 challenge, he had encountered being cheated so the best way would be to create a big margin against the other teams.

"Sometimes, organizers tend to cut other special stages so that other teams won't get the chance to climb for higher spot and those special stages are mostly the hope of other teams and hopefully in won't happen in Malaysia," he said.

Despite ranking fifth overall, Mendiola said that he remained proud over the five-day challenge as he with his co-driver Jamilla performed well especially in the river crossing where they were able to finish under a short span of time.

The RP team gained 2520 points, ranked fifth against the 40 other teams from Europe and Asia. Malaysia notched first place with 2946, followed by Hongkong, China with 2720, and its two other teams ranked third with 2593 and fourth with 2547 points.

Other members of the team that will participate in Malaysia are Dennis Javier (technical adviser), Marvin Roxas (Mechanic), Robby Consunji (RFC representative), Beeboy Bargas (BBC Top Gear Philippines) and Marc Soong (Land Rover Philippines, sponsor).