Jody tops Subic races

SUBIC - Jody Coseteng of Shell-Toyota Tom's lived up to his billing as one of the country's top competition drivers by winning the first two rounds of the 2000 Philippine National Touring Car Championships at the Subic International Raceway.

Looking unstoppable in his Toyota Corolla, Coseteng held off actor-sportsman Jomari Yllana of Toyota-Team Tom's and Nilo Pazcoguin of Redline Racing in the 15-lap race at the 2.8-kilometer course near the international airport.

Coseteng, whose title-retention bid is also being backed by Fujitsu Ten Car Audio, San Miguel Corp., Triton Securities and Yokohama, claimed he has trained extensively for this year's races as early as last year.

Overall, the 42-year old Coseteng clocked a total time of 30:25.369 in the first race held in the morning, including the fastest lap time of 1:32.801 in the fifth lap. He timed 30:59.636 in the second race.

Ferdie Ong of Tom's-Ten Years After ruled Class B over Mato Tan and Derrick Yu-Tian.

Equally impressive were Calos Anton of Shell-MP Turbo and Carlo Pastor of Team TEC, who topped Divisions I and II of the Shell Helix-Philippine Junior Touring Car Series, respectively.