Flashing the same never-say die spirit that endeared him to local racing fans and enabled him to finish runner-up in the past two years, Ramirez overtook Coseteng in the fourth of the 15-lap morning race and then held his ground to rule the season-opening Blaze super saloon organized by the Sports Values, Inc. (SVI) in cooperation with Petron and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).
"It was a food race and I’m happy to win it. I really wanted to win the first race to kick off the new motorsports season on a high note," said Ramirez, who is hoping to become the fourth member of the well-known Ramirez family to win the overall title since the revival of circuit racing in the country in 1994.
Ramirez clocked 34:31. 614 in the 15-lap race at the newly-improved 3.1 kilometer race course in Cubi Pt., or 5.305 seconds ahead of Coseteng.
Coseteng, however, evened up matters by dominating the second race held in the afternoon with a time of 22:55.234 against Ramirez’s 23;04.892.
Overall, both Ramirez and Coseteng have 16 points apiece based on the 10-6-4-3-2-1 scoring system.
Another Petron-SRA driver — Louie Ramirez — finished third for the day with seven points.