Racing with 11 aggressive teams

MANILA, Philippines - After a successful first season aired two years ago, The Amazing Race (TAR) Philippines recently started its second season with 11 teams who are all aggressive, strong and highly competitive in every task. The teams naturally try to surpass each other to be the first to reach the Pit Stop in every leg.

The show airs nightly on primetime after the newscast on TV5, with weekend telecast at 9 p.m. Sundays are for recap of the week’s episodes. Derek Ramsay returns as host for the second season.

TAR Philippines won the Outstanding Adapted Reality Competition Program in the 2013 Golden Screen Awards of the Entertainment Press Society. In this new season, the obstacles are made “more exciting, more thrilling and more amazing” in different destinations across the country.

The 11 teams are composed of Pinay world champs Chen Albaniel (professional boxer) and Luz McClinton (fitness trainer), Team Mr. Pogi JP Duray and Kelvin Engles, The Nerds Vince Yu (summa cum laude) and Ed Maguan (magna cum laude), the Chefs Eji Estillore and Roch Hernandez, sexy besties RR Enriquez and Jeck Maierhofer, travel buddies Zarah Evangelista and Osang De la Rosa, blondies Avy and Tina Wells (sisters), dating couple Matt and Phoebe, siblings Yna and Jet Cruz, father and son AJ and Jody, team Juan Direction Daniel Marsh and Charlie Sutcliffe.

Expectedly, there are familiar faces among the participants. Half-Irish and half-Filipino Daniel and half-British and half-Filipino Charlie are two of the cast members of TV5’s documentary-style reality show, Juan Direction.

Luz of the Pinay world champs team was earlier seen as a housemate in Pinoy Big Brother on ABS-CBN. RR of the sexy-besties team was a noontime show host. JP and Kelvin formerly joined the Mr. Pogi contest on Eat, Bulaga!

The race kicked off at the historic Baluarte de San Diego in Intramuros before the teams dispersed to their destinations. The first Roadblock happened at the SM Aura Premier in Bonifacio Global City, where one member had to rappel down face first from the 29th floor of the Penthouse of the building.

Then at the Imperial Ice Bar also in Taguig, teams had to arrange the ice blocks containing letters that spell out the location of their next destination, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) in Ayala, Makati City. At the PSE, teams had to decipher codes to crack a password so they can proceed to their next itinerary.

At the University of Makati Stadium, teams had to complete a 100-meter sprint then get their next clue. The first Detour was Serve or Souffle. Since Souffle would require them to bake at the Center for Culinary Arts (CCA), all teams opted to Serve at the Little Tokyo restaurant. They were tasked to get orders from customers and repeat the Japanese dishes correctly to the chef.

The teams braved the rains and traffic to reach the Newport Performing Arts Theater at Resorts World Manila, where they had to perform a dance sequence from the musical, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. They must satisfy the four judges before they could proceed to the Pit Stop.

First to arrive at the Pit Stop were Ed and Vince, who won an Express Pass that can help them skip any task which they find difficult to perform. The last to arrive were Zarah and Osang, who were also eliminated.

The winning pair at the end of the entire race will take home P2M, two houses and lots, two brand-new Kia Sportage.

Derek reminded all the teams at the start to “race safe, race smart and race fast.”