MANILA, Philippines – The Ford Focus-TRS Racing team unveiled an impressive debut bagging a champion trophy and two third place finishes recently in the 2009 Philippine Grand Touring Car Championship at the Batangas Racing Circuit.
The GT races is a mix of sprint and endurance racing with high powered and exotic race cars.
TRS president and multi-titled champ JP Tuason captured the champion trophy in the GT 200 class while Stuart MacDonald and Dominic Samson bagged GT 125 third place finishes for the Ford-Tuason Racing School backed up by Ford, Goodyear, Standard Insurance, Yellow Cab Pizza, Toptul, Aguila Glass, Speedlab, Ultra Racing, Discovery Suites, Rota, Options Unlimited, OMP, Freemuff, Phil Auto Club and C! Magazine.
The team arrived on raceday with less preparation and practice compared to seasoned GT races competitors. Both Ford cars were underpowered in their classes and were running on Goodyear Excellence street tires compared to others who were using intermediate race tires.
But talent and the reliability of both Ford TDCi and and Ford Focus 1.6 Gas racing cars pulled the three drivers through, besting other drivers who were competing since the start of the series.
After finishing fifth in the 11-lap Sprint Race, Tuason, made a big comeback in the afternoon’s 16-lap Main Race aboard a stock engine Ford Focus TDCi where he turned back William Tan for the GT 200 crown clocking 33 minutes and 55.840 seconds.
MacDonald’s aggressive driving and strategy even put him up third overall at the start of the Main Race using the Ford Focus 1.6 Gas before winding up third while Samson, a first-timer at the BRC track, went consistently smooth throughout to clinch the GT 125 third place in the 11-lap Sprint Race with a time of 23:36.401.
“We’re happy with our great debut here. Actually, we were underdogs since all we had was just a 15-minute practice run and not much time to set-up the cars for the race. But the quality and reliability of Ford racing cars came out as the key to our fruitful maiden stint in this event,” said Tuason.