Fastlane, a coffee table book

There is an interesting gathering this Saturday afternoon for Cebuano "petrol heads" if I may borrow a favorite phrase of my good friend from the Land Down Under, Graeme MacKinnon, who uses such to refer to racing enthusiasts.

I received e-mail from Jose Emilio 'Bolgie' Bolhano, a classmate from my high school and college days, about the launching of the AAP Fastlane book this Saturday.

Bolgie, as we fondly call him not Jing as his colleagues now refer to the man, is now connected with the Automotive Association of the Philippines.

A top feature of the coffee table book will be the 1969 Cebu Grand Prix, which was organized by car enthusiasts from this part of the country. It was held at the Mactan reclamation area.

The race was held on December 14, 1969 and had many Cebuanos working to make it happen. According to the e-mail, some of those Cebuanos who helped made the Grand Prix happen were Douglas Marcaida, Gabby Ylanan, Maning Escoton, Mel Tamayo, Saling Araga, Joey Garcia, Jing Garcia, Freddie Madarang, Edward To, Bobby Chong, Edward Neri, and Murray Jurado. From the list, I only know Prof. Mel Tamayo, who was my teacher in Humanities at UP College Cebu.

The organizers of the launch this Saturday at the Off Roads Café near Kart Zone are also inviting those who were part of that grand prix to attend what could be sort of a grand reunion.

The book also features historic photographs chronicling the development of car racing in the Philippines from the 1950s to the present.

The e-mail further said this book is a compilation of stories and hundreds of never-before-published photographs.

This is truly amazing and I surely would find time for this book launch. By the way, if you're interested, the book sells for only P2,000 and is available at the AAP office.

If you have any inquiries, you can contact Jing (only his classmates call him Bolgie) at 2326406 or 0927-3032878.

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Another e-mail I received came from a fellow football enthusiast, who also happened to have gone to Andres Soriano Memorial School de la Salle in Toledo City.

Chito is asking where he could join football practices as he is hoping to enjoy playing the game again, but this time in the more senior (I had to concoct a nice sounding term) age division.

Chito played for the ASMS team that made it to the national finals of the Coke Go For Goal in the late 1980s.

I'm sure, just like him, many other former players are hoping to get a chance to play, but are probably too shy to join practices.

Well, on early Sunday mornings the Queen City United Football Club plays at the University of San Carlos-Talamban Campus field. You might want to drop by there and look for guys like Ricky Dakay, Richard Montayre, Gorio Balsicas, or Joey Catan among the many fanatics that gather there regularly.

There are other groups also with their own schedules. I am calling our friends from the football community to let the others know of your practice schedules. This way we can draw more people to the game we love to play despite our age and the excess poundage that we carry.

I know that the Paref Dads practice at Springdale every Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 to 9 pm.

For those who might want to share their practice schedules, send e-mail to [email protected].

You can also send me your views.