MANILA, Philippines - Antonio Sebastian “Basti” Escalante, 11, on his debut season under the helm of Tuason Racing School (TRS) Racing Career Management Program, training with no less than Multi Awarded Race Car driver Mike Tuason, recently clinched top spot on the 2010 Pagcor KF2/KF3 Championship Race 4 at the Clark International Speedway.
With less than eight months in the program, Escalante follows a strict physical, racing and coaching regimen, patterned after training programs used by F1 Drivers. This paid off when he was able to outsmart former Champion Christian Gaddi, who has years of experience under his belt.
The program designed by the brothers JP and Mike Tuason, both multi disciplined racers and champions with more than 30 years of racing experience combined. “Our goal with this program is to be able to help young racers achieve a successful career path in motorsports, we have partnerships both in Asia, US and Europe for our trainees to move on after they go through the available programs we have here in the country. We also arrange enriching race experiences all around the world for them to experience the level of competition in the global arena,” explained Mike Tuason, who is head of the Program and VP of TRS for Technical & Operations.
Escalante, a grade 5 student of the De la Salle Zobel, is the son of the famed gourmet restaurateurs, Chef Tony Boy and Agnes Escalante of Antonio’s in Tagaytay. He is also supported by Tuason Racing School, OMP, Audi, Bridgestone, Puma, Coke Zero, Castrol, Bank of Commerce, Werdenberg International Corp., Transnational Diversified Group, Emcor, KServico, Audi, Washington Watches and is part of the R2R Team. He qualified on pole position after posting the fastest time of 1:08.867 on his very first lap. He bested Gaddi with only 0.2 of a second, which dictated their cutthroat battle the whole race day, breathing on each other’s neck.
Escalante also broke the lap record for Clark International Speedway in his Mini Rock Division, posting 1:08.490.
In the final race, Escalante from pole position went down to 4th place after a bad start but charge on to overtake to 2nd place on the 3rd lap. He continued on 2nd place a few seconds behind Gaddi and on the last lap was able to close in approaching the checkered flag bumper to bumper. On the final moments of the race, Escalante was able to outsmart Gaddi and went wheel-to-wheel and finished just fraction of a second in front of Gaddi.
“The Race was so exciting, Basti finished in front of Gaddi with a time difference of 0.031 of a second. They were neck to neck until the finish line. Basti was able to study his opponent and strategized against him. We see such a bright future for him in motorsports, we are so proud of him,” added the excited coach, Mike Tuason.