Paolo Ivan Santos capitalized on defending champion Edwin Rodriguez’s engine misery in the first of two closing races to seize the Yokohama GT200 national title in the 2019 Petron Philippine Motorsports Championships (Phimos) at Clark International Speedway in Pampanga recently.
Slaying the ghost of his own sputtering form late in last year’s 12-race, six-leg series, the 22-year-old Santos clinched the GT Driver of the Year crown by nine points over Rodriguez with a 169 season total despite finishing second and then fourth in his Honda FD to surprise back-to-back winner Ton Ramos.
“It feels really fulfilling to win this year since my car was riddled with problems last season. Winning the Driver of the Year award has been one of my goals ever since I started racing and I’m glad to have accomplished it,” said Santos, a business management graduate at La Salle who won a 2018-best six Phimos races but still yielded the title to Rodriguez.
Ahead of Santos by a precarious four points going into the final leg, Rodriguez turned his Honda FD into erstwhile overall leader Andre Tan’s own FD in the first race, corrupting his engine’s Otto cycle and failing to finish. Needing to win the last race and hoping that Santos of Lubestraders Shell Helix Ultra Racing would fare no better than fifth, Rodriguez managed only third.
Ramos, a teammate of Rodriguez, posted his first victories in the series, clocking 22 minutes and 13.234 seconds and then a quicker 22:08.072 over eight spins around the 4.2-kilometer circuit.
Justin Neri finished fourth and then sixth overall in the combined races to finally reel in former leader Lewy Manio and sew up the GT150 title by three points. Russ Agapito, fifth overall in the final race, settled for third, 25 points off Neri, who won five of the last six races in the class.
Drew Manio missed the final two GT100 races won by Oscar Suarez but still clinched the division title by 49 points over Carlo Angelo Mojica and Jeff Pobadora on the strength of six consecutive wins from Race 5.
Manio also topped the Rookie class over Pobadora and Mojica.