FONTANA Hot Spring Leisure Parks, a play-and-relax dreamland nestled in the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga, kept its promise to stage the biggest auto show in the country called “Fontana Clark Auto-Motorama 2015,” which was held from November 13 to 15 at the Whole Convention Center of Fontana Clark.
“For several years now, we have always been a great advocate of Reach Out World Wide Foundation—the same beneficiary supported by the late action star Paul Walker, who starred in the immensely popular Fast and Furious movie series,” said Fontana CEO Manuel Sequeira, during the grand opening held at the Fontana Clark.
The event, which was themed “Drive More to Reach More,” was more than just an auto show as it also featured other exciting activities for auto enthusiasts and the general public including the Car and Truck of the Year Awards given by the Car Awards Group Inc. (Cagi), the country’s premier automotive award-giving body. After months of preparation and testing 78 vehicles from the 2015 model year, which involved roughly 1,500 test drives for four days, Cagi, has named the Mazda 2 as the 2015 Car of the Year-Philippines and the Nissan Navara as the Truck of the Year-Philippines. The announcement was made at the Cagi Gala Awards Night held on November 13 in the Grand Ballroom of Fontana Clark.
The next day, the fifth JSK Auto Fun Run, headed by Johnson Tan, broke its previous record of 510 vehicles. Despite the traffic caused by preparations for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation 2015, the event drew a total of 1,059 cars and motorcycles—setting a record of the longest vehicle convoy, which took off from TriNoma Mall parking area in Quezon City around 9:18 a.m. The very first Auto Fun Run saw 70 participants driving vehicles of various makes and models from Valenzuela City to Subic. In previous editions, 180 vehicles participated in 2012, which then grew to more than 300 vehicles in 2013, and more than 500 vehicles in 2014.
Over 2,000 guests were treated to a live-band entertainment, sumptuous meals, games and exciting prizes, as well as raffle prizes. The celebration led to an Auto Show Pool Party with a live disc jockey on Saturday night, which was held at the Olympic-size swimming pool area of Fontana Hot Spring Leisure Parks Hotel. The grand prize was a brand-new BYD F0, which was raffled off among the 1,059 participants, who joined the motorcade. Solar Transport and Automotive Resources Corp., the exclusive distributor of BYD cars in the country, picked 15 participants, whose names were randomly drawn and asked to pick a letter from the phrase “Build your dreams.” Each letter was assigned to a box that contained a card key and a special prize, but only one card key was capable of switching on the F0’s engine. The lucky winner was 27-year-old businessman Crispulo Eusebio III of Santa Cruz, Manila.On the last day, the grand finals of the Fontana Dance Showdown commenced, as well as the Social Media Photo Contest. “I’m very happy for the turnout of the three-day event,” Sequeira said. “I think Paul Walker was watching over us. The Auto-Motorama was a success because of our partners Clark Development Corp., San Miguel Corp., PLDT Smart Telecommunications, and co-organizers San Miguel Brewery, San Miguel Purefoods, Ginebra San Miguel, Petron, Clark International Speedway, Cagi, JSK our friends from the media.”
Image credits: Ronald de los Reyes
1 comment
Where did you advertise this event, I heard about it only now post facto?