Golden Wheel Awards honors best in motorsports

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Sports Commission chairman Ricardo Garcia and Automobile Association Philippines (AAP) Motorsports Committee chairman Mandy Eduque are the guests-of-honor as the Golden Wheel Foundation stages its eighth Annual Golden Wheel Awards Night tomorrow at Pagcor Theater in Parañaque City.

The two sports officials will grace the affair which is expected to be the biggest gathering of motorsports heroes and aficionados in the country.

The Golden Wheel Awards, a brainchild of RP Motorsports godfather Johnny Tan, will be feting this year’s champions in nine racing disciplines. They are Ivan Santiago (scooters), Jaime Barcial (underbone), Maico Buncio (superbike), Glenn Aguilar (motocross), Jean Stefano Marcelo (karting), Abraham Salagan Collado (4x4 off-road), Alex Perez (drifting), William Tan (grand touring), and Jonathan Tiu (drag racing).

And from among them, one will be picked as the overall winner of the prestigious Golden Wheel Driver of the Year award.

Two Indonesians are also coming to receive their Golden Wheel awards - Asian Karter of the Year Sean Gelael and Asian Junior Karter of the Year Yasuo Senna Iriawan.

Joining the list of awardees are circuit racing legend Yu Beng Tek who will be elevated to the Hall of Fame and media awardees QTV-11’s X-Life for the “X-Treme: Racing and Drifting” segments, ASTIG TV-5 for the “Go-Karting: Stefano Marcelo and Roby Benito” segment, The Philippine Daily Inquirer for the numerous articles published featuring motorsports and motorsport events, and sports scribe Francis “TJ” Ochoa for his article ‘Czar of the Speedway’ published in the Inquirer last September that won the Henry Ford Foundation award as the Best Motorsports Story.