10 years of road trekking with Toyota

The Toyota Road Trek is a yearly event organized by Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) wherein select members of the motoring media are invited and brought to exotic local tourist spots and sights to test drive their latest automobile models but more to give them the opportunity to bask and enjoy whatever the destination has to offer in terms of leisure. It was first conceived and staged in 2005 making this year’s edition, which was held from May 14 to 17 its 10th anniversary staging.

The yearly tradition was thought of by TMP executives as a way of expressing its appreciation to the country’s motoring journalists for simply doing their jobs—that of writing and reporting on the auto industry’s latest developments including that of Toyota—that’s basically being appreciated and thanked for doing what a journalist is suppose to do in the first place, and of course the media is not complaining but very appreciative of the gesture.

To make the yearly experience more fun and exciting the journalists are grouped into teams and are made to meet and hurdle varied challenges while going through the test drive that range from cerebral (from history, geography to intimate knowledge of Toyota car models) to atrocious (like having to eat watermelon only with your mouth without the use of your hands or dance the “ati-atihan’s hala bira” with faces fully made-up in black)—antics that would earn points for your team. The three to four-day event would usually culminate with a riotous dinner with food and booze flowing endlessly where the winners would be announced and given fabulous prizes.  

Since its inception a decade ago, it was only last year that I sorely failed to join the “Toyota Road Trek.” It was mainly because its firmed-up schedule was announced a little late and after I have made confirmed hotel bookings and travel arrangements for our family’s 3-country trip to Greece, Jordan and Israel. But believe me the exotic sights of these countries failed to stop me from thinking of what I was missing in this always eagerly awaited get together that was then going on while I was in faraway places— the fierce but friendly competition brought about by the challenges, the endless “kantiawans”, the all-night boozing, the “all-in” sessions and the distinctive selfless camaraderie among motoring journalists. 

Well, TMP made sure that the Toyota Road Trek’s 10th anniversary was indeed special. To begin with the journalists were made to trace their tracks back to where it all started in 2005—the world famous Boracay Beach. 

For our STV (Sunshine TV) Team, it was special because we marked the 2nd time we won 1st place in the 10-year history of the “road trek” challenges. The first time was in 2009 in Dumaguete when we had in our team, Inquirer’s Charles Buban and this year we had Vince Pornelos of Autoindustriya.com joining our ranks with STV’s VP for production Jenny Bleza and ace cameraman Matt Mallari. 

Despite my having actively participated in two of the many challenges that were lined up, namely the one where the team tried to catch the most number of catfish in a tub and that wherein the team worked with a local Grade 5 student in answering questions in the local dialect and translated to English by the participating local student, I’ll have to give the credit for the win to this trio of Pornelos, Bleza and Mallari as I have spent most of the time during the challenges in the roomy temperate confines of the top-of-the-line Toyota Super Grandia in the exclusive company of what’s now infamously referred to in the Toyota Road Trek as GI (Grupo Impertinente) or GPS (Grupo Pasaway at Suwail) composed of Danny “Sir John” Isla, president of Lexus-Manila, syndicated sports columnist and much-read motoring journalist, Al “Sir Paul” Mendoza, TMP vice president for corporate affairs, Atty. Rommel Gutierrez and TMP vice president for sales Sherwin Chua Lim while exchanging jokes and trivia questions or fast asleep all throughout the long test drive route—“mga pasaway at impertinente talaga”.

The last Toyota Road Trek was also special for me and nine other “road trek” mainstays because of the 10 special awards given out to mark the 10 successful staging of the ever-momentous event. For whatever reason, this writer was given the “cool cat” award, supposedly for always maintaining such cool composure despite being faced with an array of tough challenges. Who wouldn’t be when you’re in such company as that of Isla, Mendoza, et al. On the other hand, the special “Gabriela” award that was given to my good friend, Pinky “sweetheart” Colmenares, executive editor of the Bulletin for always having the “katipunera” spirit while going through the challenges was in my book really appropriate. 

We have another year of waiting to see how Toyota Motor Philippines would again try to outdo itself in staging the next Toyota Road Trek as it has been doing year after year.

Toyota Motor Philippines thank you for having us all these ten years.         

“On time all the time” in scenic Tagaytay

Thanks to Congressman Bambol Tolentino we have the “summer capital of the metro”, Tagaytay City once again hosting the 1st leg of the Caltex-STV Auto Rally Corporate Challenge (STV-ARCC) this weekend, Saturday, May 31st.

Just like last year, the hardworking City Administrator of Tagaytay City, Engr. Gregorio Monreal has his hands full making sure the city delivers what’s expected of being the host, for the 2nd straight year of the motorsport event which, by its intrinsic rules promotes road safety and driver’s discipline. Being run in public roads, any participant caught violating any kind of traffic rule is outright disqualified and prevented from further participating. And Tagaytay City leads the way in promoting road safety and drivers’ discipline.

Of course as many in the auto industry know, the ARCC is one of the corroborative projects of Sunshine Television (STV) and SocioCom Foundation for Asia in their common advocacy to promote road safety. Funds netted from the event are used to support the road safety seminars (Young Street Smarts Road Safety School Tour) that are held for free in the different high schools in Metro Manila and adjoining provinces all year round. 

We learned that our decision to hold the STV-ARCC this year in the midst of summer has its downside—so many events are scheduled one after another during this time of the year that some teams had to beg off joining with a heavy heart, especially their team members. Despite this we’ll have at least 33 cars on the starting grid, still a large one compared to the starting grids during the time of the hay days of the sport in the mid 60s.

Through the courtesy of Tagaytay Highlands Golf and Country Club, which is celebrating their 10th anniversary, the 1st leg of the 2014 Caltex STV-ARCC shall flag off and end in the parking lot of the Tagaytay Highlands Steak House. The event shall form part of their anniversary festivities as creatively arranged by their marketing promotions manager, Philip Medina.

This leg’s participating corporate teams and some of the car models that they will be fielding include (in alphabetical order) Cats Motors (Mercedes Benz GLK220, C220 and Chrysler 300C), Chevy (Spin), Ford (Fiesta Ecoboost), Honda (City), Isuzu (Alterra & DMax), Lexus (RX350, IS350 & GS350), Mazda (Mazda3, Mazda6 & CX-5 AWD), Mini (PacemanS & CountrymanS) Subaru (Forester & XV), Toyota (Vios, Innova & Fortuner) and Volkswagen (Beetle, Tiguan & Touareg).

The Mini Rally Team is gunning for its 3rd championship this year to be able to hold on permanently to the prestigious ARCC Championship Trophy and the bragging rights that come with it. The Tagaytay leg is worth 30% in total points with the 70% to be gained on the 2nd leg, which we aim to hold in November once again in the maze-like roads of Subic.

Based on the Sampaguita “on time all the time” road rally, the Caltex STV-ARCC is not a race but basically a precision driving competition that needs the focused participation of all members of the team composed of the driver, route navigator and time navigator.  

We’ll see you this Saturday in Tagaytay!

Happy Motoring!!!

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