MANILA, Philippines - Ford Group Philippines (FGP) received the award of Over-All Champion at the recently concluded 2010 Sunshine TV Auto Rally Corporate Challenge Awarding Ceremonies held at the Valle Verde Country Club. The combined team of Ford and Mazda Philippines received this title along with several other awards for the race more popularly dubbed as the “Sampaguita Rally”, held last March 6 in Subic.
The FGP team was made up of five pairs of two, each tandem representing different partners of Ford and Mazda in the industry. The pairs were father-son team of Chito Santiago and Juan Sebastian Santiago representing the Miata Club Philippines driving the Mazda MX-5, Joel Lago and Ray Reyes of the MazdaTech Club on-board the all-new Mazda2, Mike Tuason and Bjorn Ongtiabok of Tuason Racing School driving the Ford Focus TDCi, Jason Gallardo and Ace Valenzuela of the Ford Club Philippines driving the Ford Escape and from FGP’s media friends, Jeff Reyes of The Philippine STAR and Christopher Kho of Tsikot.com racing the Ford Focus TDCi.
Aside from the Over-all Championship, teams also garnered several wins for excellent performances in various stages of the competition. The Ford Club Philippines tandem was awarded Most Precise Time while also earning the Best Time for Stages 4 and 5.
The Miata Club achieved the same for Stage 9 – Best Time and the media tandem of Jeff Reyes and Christopher Kho also secured Best Time for Stage 12 of the rally. The team of Reyes and Kho also snagged 2nd place as over-all Tandem Champion.
The Sampaguita Rally was participated in by 13 automobile brands and manufacturers across the Metro. “FGP congratulates the organizers for a successful and historic STV Auto Rally Corporate Challenge along with its many participants,” said Anika Salceda, FGP Assistant Vice President for Corporate Communications. “We also congratulate the Ford/Mazda Team for their trophy win and look forward to next year’s run,” she added.