Daniel Miranda races way to best Asian Driver plum

CEBU, Philippines — Cebuano car racer Daniel Miranda endured the worst crash in his career to become the best Asian Driver at the end of 2019 TCR Asia International Series over at weekend at the Bangsaen Street Circuit in Thailand.

Miranda of Eurasia Motorsport had a stellar showing at the Bangsaen Grand Prix 2019, the final battle of the TCR Series, from practice to the qualifying round.

However, the Cebuana Lhuillier-backed driver got into trouble in race 1 last Saturday when another car he was chasing hit a blind curve on the sixth of the 10-lap action covering 3.749-kilometer per lap.

With the two cars stuck on the track, another speeding driver also collided with them, causing Miranda’s car to catch fire.

Miranda though was able to get out of his Hyundai i30N TCR, fast and safely, but his car’s hood was badly damaged.

Interestingly, the mechanics did wonders for Miranda, working overtime just in time for the TCR Asia’s final race last Sunday.

Martin Miranda, Daniel’s dad, said his son’s clutch got busted in the final race but still managed to survive at least 12 laps to be considered a finisher behind race 2 winner Diego Moran.

Miranda sealed his debut year with 84 points to land at sixth place in the final race of the season and fourth overall behind German Luca Engstler.

The lone Pinoy racer in this adrenaline-pumping event opened his bid in the TCR Asia at sixth spot in race 1, then second in race 2 in Malaysia. The multi-titled Miranda continued to sizzle, winding up third in race 2 in Zhuhai, China.

In the next four races that were all held in different tracks of China, Miranda tallied as much as 30 points to pad his lead as the best Asian rider heading into the final battle in Thailand.

“He is the best amongst all Asians after 10 rounds. We had problems on the formation lap as the car was limping around the track but he needed to finish 12 laps out of 15 to be classified as finisher which he got! Thank you to all the hard working Pinoy mechanics who had no sleep at all to fix the car after a huge shunt,” said Miranda’s coach Roland Hermoso.

Gao Hua Yang, Miranda’s closest rival for the top Asian Driver award, settled for second with 71 points while Korea’s Kim Jin Soo placed third with 58 points. (FREEMAN)