230 kph, 15 years old

They look like regular kids. Pubescent age, probably just starting in college, yeah... we see them by the thousands every day, right? But to the local motorsports scene, they just might be the future of Philippine racing. The next generation of racers set to make waves not just in the country but also in Asia and, maybe (just maybe), Europe. Why is this so? Why do their sponsors (actually, their families) have that much faith and support for them? Because they’re in that revered form of 4-wheeled motorsports, the sexiest, most famous type of all: Formula racing. Dado Pena, Don Pastor, and Tyson Sy are breaking into the big leagues with Formula BMW.

Well, that’s the plan anyway. Read the usual magazine feature on F1 superstars like Michael Schumacher or Kimi Raikonnen and you’ll inevitably come across a line or other that says they all started with karting. For the boys, they’ve been there and done that. Dado, for example, started karting way back in 1999, went pro a year later, finished 4th overall in the National Series, and was the 2000 Junior Karter of the Year in the Junior KT Class.

On the other hand, Don began handling heavier machinery before landing a seat in a Formula BMW. Driving a Toyota Corolla for Team T.E.C. Pilipinas in 2002 (his debut year), he finished the season as 1st Runner-up Overall in the SVI Challenge Cup and as the Class C Champion. Now he’s the first Filipino recipient of a scholarship program in the Formula BMW series. During try-outs in Spain, he posted the 2nd fastest time as a rookie, and he’s currently in the running for 2nd in the Rookie class after eight races finished so far in Malaysia and Thailand.

But back to that karting thing and how it’s supposed to be the first step to a successful career in motorsports. The second step is harder, it’s more serious, and it’s more expensive. That’s because the next step is a manufacturer-backed Formula series where a company provides the venues and the cars and you just have to pay the fees; sort of like a big-time rent-a-car service for aspiring racers. By providing series like Formula Ford, Formula Renault, and Formula BMW, manufacturers are able to groom promising drivers who’ll then move on to Formula 3000 and, God willing, a coveted Formula One driver’s seat.

So that’s the intent of the Formula BMW Asian Championship, taking in especially talented karters and giving them valuable seat time in a true-blue Formula car where they’ll learn the intricacies of shifting a six-speed gearbox, choosing gear ratios, and fine-tuning the car’s wings for better aerodynamics just like Michael or Juan or Kimi or whoever’s your favorite do. All that while balancing a regular college workload too, since these guys still have to do their calculus and their research and their essays and other stuff just like other regular college folk.

The difference, of course, is that while the average college kid can only dream of driving an F1 car and must content himself or herself with whatever car the parents give (if at all), Dado, Tyson, and Don are actually doing something to work towards that goal. And they’re not into something a lot of well-off college kids are into these days, which is illegal drag racing. "They should spend their money on legal racing or on the track. At least they can get fame, trophies and girls pa," says 17-year old Don.

The Formula BMW car is a serious piece of machinery. Obviously not a land-bound fighter plane like what Montoya drives at work, but it looks like it. And it employs the basic principles: single seat, open wheels, wings over here, wings over there, side pods, deformable crash boxes in front of and behind the driver, and a Kevlar/carbon fiber racing seat. It uses the 140-bhp engine from the K1200RS motorcycle. With the right gearing and wing setup, it’ll take the kids to a 230 kph top speed. Whoa? Don’t sweat it. At least they’re not into illegal drag racing, right?

While most parents would fret that their sons might be racing at midnight with the family car, these guys’ folks probably don’t. If anything, they’re fortunate that they have folks who give them the moral and financial support to chase each other as well as other Asian drivers around various tracks in Asia over the course of the Formula series. Which is not to say that they couldn’t use a helping hand from corporations, of course.

Even at a subsidized price, a Formula BMW car will cost you 48,500 Euros. Care to convert that to dollars? It’s a hefty sum, but world-class schooling has never been cheap. Besides the cost of the car, there’s also transportation and logistics involved since the series travels through Asia. And the first step in Formula BMW is a 4-day, $3,200 course at its racing center in Valencia, Spain where they’ll teach would-be racers the basics, fitness and nutrition classes, and even how to make presentations to potential sponsors. Promising drivers do get partial scholarships from BMW.

Since this is only their first year in Formula racing, the guys aren’t exactly eating the competition for lunch yet. But they’re handling themselves pretty well. On his first race for the season in Sepang, Malaysia, Dado started from 13th on the grid and finished in 5th. Tyson, who acknowledges that the Formula is "a learning process", started from 15th and finished 7th. Both drivers are with Team Castrol Goddard. Don had a not-so-nice race, suffering a broken suspension arm but managing to finish 2nd in the rookie class anyway. In the 2nd heat, he was leading 3rd overall and 1st in his class. With 3 laps to go, a Korean bumped him, causing him to spin out before recovering to salvage 4th overall and 1st in his class.

While the three are already learning the ropes of Formula racing there’s another driver being groomed for seat time in a Bimmer next year: Ivan Carapiet. An aggressive karter for the EdgSport team in the Shell Super Series, he was one of the top three quickest in practice for his two most recent races, finishing 2nd in his first race. In his second race, he won in the 1st heat and placed 2nd in the next one.

All the guys have the same dream: a Formula One career some day, some way. If that doesn’t happen, they have their "Plan B’s", which include working regular jobs or running businesses or practicing law like most everyone else. Of course, it’s inevitable that we have to ask: do race car drivers, even at so young an age, really get the girls like we see on Star Sports? Says Tyson, "Maybe if you’re really good and you’re a star." Racing really does involve a lot of hard work, people. Hours of preparation, thousands of miles of traveling, lots of expenses, intense stress and energy, all just to be in one of the most dangerous sports in the world. For these kids, it’s all part of the tuition to make it into the big leagues some day.