MANILA, Philippines – The Mazda BT-50 -TRS Drift Team amazed the crowd anew following its impressive performance in Round 4 of the Castrol Drifting Series recently at the Alabang Town Center Open Parking.
Mike Tuason held his ground against top caliber rivals to power a fourth place finish for the BT-50 -TRS Drift Team in partnership with Mazda Philippines and supported by Goodyear, Speedlab, Aguila Auto Glass, Unichip, OMP, Dupont, Starbright Body Kits, Rota wheels, Fremuff, H&R, K&N, Philippine Auto Club, C!Magazine, Business World, Orange Electronics, Pocari Sweat, Discovery Suite and AutoCraft.
The whole team, composed of PTCC division 3 champion Stuart MacDonald, Francisco Blanco, Bjorn Ongtiabok, multi-awarded racing champ Mike Tuason and guest driver Andy Sevilla of BusinessMirror, actually qualified into the Top 16.
Both Tuason and Blanco advanced to the Top 8 but Blanco lost the chance to move to top 4. He almost overtook a Sylvia s15 but tried to avoid collision.
Tuason, on the other hand, created a stir when he outran a Nissan Sylvia s15 in the final round to garner a draw and earn a point to finish overall fourth place.
The feat only proved that the team surpassed the obstacles of modifying a full cab pickup truck into a drift car and made it among the top finishers of the drifting series dominated by heavily modified cars revving up to 400 horsepower.
“The Mazda BT-50 Drift Truck and the Team performed beyond our expectations. We are very happy with the results despite being first-timers and the only team competing with a diesel pick-up truck. As we gain more experience, we are confident that we will be even stronger in the succeeding races,” said Mazda Philippines Brand Manager Prudz Castillo.
The Mazda BT-50 -TRS Drift Team will now move on the professional series, with Audel Sison joining the crew competing in the Professional Lateral Drift series on April 25.
The Mazda BT-50 Drift Truck will also be on display at the Transport show set April 22-25 at the OMP booth. For details, interested parties may log on to www.tuasonracing.com or call 8177795.