Honda Media Challenge heats up!

By Andy Sevilla

ACTION heated up during the third and penultimate leg of the ongoing 2006 Honda Media Jazz Challenge Series recently held at the Carmona Racing Circuit in Cavite.

Team Philippine Star eked out a very slim victory in the Veteran’s team competition to prevail in the third leg to break the tie for the overall lead with 60 points as against the second running Team Manila Bulletin/Manila Times.

Team Philippine Star (composed of Manny de los Reyes, Jeff Reyes, Lester Dizon and Andy Leuterio) submitted an aggregate 3:05.05 as against the 3:05.59 of its archrival Team Manila Bulletin/Manila Times (composed of Brian Afuang, Aaron Favila, Aris Ilagan and Anjo Perez) to bag 21 big first-place points to bring their overall leading total to 60.

The second-running Team Manila Bulletin/Manila Times has 57 points in second place while the Team BusinessMirror/RX92.1 (composed of Jude Morte, Andy Sevilla, Iñigo Roces and Tom Garcia) virtually clinched third place overall as it bagged another 15 precious points to increase its grip on third overall with 45 points.

Team Auto Review/People’s Journal (Rav Bracero, Ron de los Reyes, Ronald de los Reyes, and Kit Joaquin) checked in fourth for 12 points  and increased its fourth-place overall standings with 36 points.

The fourth and final leg on December 9 at the same venue is very important for the four leading teams in their fight for the top three standings. A victory by Team Philippine Star will assure them of this year’s championship while a victory by the Team Manila Bulletin/Manila Times will ensure a tie for first.

Meanwhile, Team BusinessMirror/RX93.1 needs another third place finish to ensure its third-place finish overall. Team Auto Review/PJ hopes for a first place finish in the final leg and a dismal fourth-place finish for Team BusinessMirror/RX93.1 in order to dislodge it from third overall.

Meanwhile, Team DZRH/Manila Standard Today is in fifth with 18 points while Team Motoring Today is in sixth and Team ABS-CBN in seventh with three points. In the Class B division, Team Top Gear continues to pull away from the pack with 60 overall points after another dominating performance. Team Auto Extreme/BW is in second with 42 points while Team Cyberpress is in third with 24 points. Team K-Lite/Jam is in fourth with 18 points.

On the other hand, Philippine Star’s Jeff Reyes submitted another top performance to lead in the overall individual standings with 90 big points. DZRH/Manila Standard Today’s Jess Garcia is in second with 69 points while Anjo Perez of Manila Bulletin is in solo third with 49.5 points.

This season’s six official 1.5-liter Honda Jazz VTECs are courtesy of Honda Cars Philippines Inc., Petron Xtra Unleaded provided the “Power for extra miles” needed in the competition. Car modifications are courtesy of Bravura, while the car stickers are by Aitech. The timing device, scoring system and website are powered by Igertech. Other sponsors include AVT–Intelligent Car Multimedia, Airborne Access, Pagcor Sports, and Bosch.

The Jazz VTEC Media Challenge is a club event sanctioned by the Automobile Association Philippines and is organized by ADBM Resources.