Again, it’s time to be “on time all the time”

The always much-awaited yearly staging of the STV Auto Rally Corporate Challenge (STV-ARCC) goes on the road once again this Saturday, May 12, flagging off at the fast-rising mega development known as Clark Global City.

With the event’s participation limited and exclusive to the local auto industry and having the distinction of being the only motor sport event that its players openly compete in, close to 40 brand new car models fielded by 11 car manufacturers’ and distributors’ Rally Teams are expected to be proudly showcased on the starting grid. In alphabetical order here are the leading brands joining the rally this year, namely: Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Isuzu, Lexus, Mazda, Mini, SsangYong, Subaru, and Volkswagen.

Widely acknowledged as one of the local auto industry’s institutional events, the STV-ARCC is not a race but a competition that is a good measure for teamwork and precision driving with a basic requirement of being “on time all the time.” Known as the ‘Tulip Rally’ in Europe, its glory days in the country were in the 60s and called the ‘Sampaguita Rally’ when it was participated in by the motor sports exponents of that time in the likes of Pocholo Ramirez, Dante Silverio, Tony Mapa, Mandy Eduque, to name a very few.

Considering that a major part of the competition is held in public roads, the rules of the road rally require very strict adherence to road safety and driver discipline (with automatic disqualification as sanction for any violation), making it one of the major projects of its organizers, Sunshine TV and Socio Com Foundation in their advocacy to promote road safety. It is part of their fund-raising initiatives to support the ‘Young Street Smarts Road Safety School Tour’ project that conducts free road safety seminars and workshops for graduating high school students to make them safe and responsible road users.

Since STV’s first attempt to revive the ‘Sampaguita Rally’ in 2001, which was held in Tagaytay City with 17 cars participating, this year’s staging would be the 10th.  Since then the biggest starting grid ever registered for this event was in 2009 flagging off at the Home Depot parking lot in Ortigas Avenue with a total of 64 cars, which was also considered then as the biggest ever for any local motor sport event. 

Favorite rally venues have been almost alternatively between Tagaytay City, Clark and Subic with perennial top-notched Rally Director, Georges Ramirez ably assisted by his lovely wife Caroline and IT expert Patrick Chua coming up not only with scenic routes but very challenging ones as well.

So far present holders of the STV-ARCC’s ‘Perpetual Trophy’, which is earned by registering three Team Championships are the MINI Rally Team and the Subaru Rally Team, the latter being the current Defending Champion.

This year’s Phoenix Fuels Pulse Technology Powered STV-ARCC would, for the first time be a combination of Clark and Subic with an exciting rally enhancement added by Georges and his team, which would undoubtedly appeal to the more daring. Another unique feature of this year’s staging is the benchmarking of participating cars’ fuel performance while on “rally mode”.

To achieve this, participating vehicles would gas up on ‘automatic full tank’ with their odometer reading registered and gas tank sealed before the rally. A post rally gas up similarly on ‘automatic full tank’ with another odometer reading would be done to determine actual fuel consumption and distance travelled.

The rally route would also include a couple of drive thru to toll plazas for the rally participants to experience first hand the present seamless travel through the different world-class tollways while traversing to and from Clark and Subic.

Proudly presented by Phoenix Petroleum in cooperation with NLEX Corporation and Harbor Point Mall, this year’s Sampaguita “on time all the time” Rally is powered by Phoenix Fuels with Pulse Technology.

“So as we all know, we launched our latest fuels proposition: Pulse Technology. We wanted to demonstrate the benefits that Phoenix Fuels with Pulse Technology can give to our consumers. True to the proposition of Pulse, we offer no less than pulsating an experience for our customers who will be fueled by Phoenix Fuels with Pulse Technology.” remarked Mr. Henry Albert “Bong” Fadullon, COO of Phoenix Petroleum during the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement with Sunshine TV and Socio Com Foundation making the Pulse Technology Powered Phoenix Fuels the ‘Official Fuel’ of this year’s STV-ARCC.  

The flag off ceremonies of the 2018 Phoenix Pulse Technology Powered STV-ARCC at the Clark Global City with no less than AAP’s motorsports committee chairman, Mandy Eduque officiating shall be covered ‘live’ on Motoring Today’s Facebook on Saturday, May 12 at 9 o’clock in the morning.

Happy Motoring!!!

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