2007 Philippine Touring Car Championship 2nd Leg

Amid scorching hot temperatures, the 3rd and 4th round of the Philippine Touring Car Championship got under way last May 20 at the Subic International Raceway.

Last year's champion and current points leader Jody Coseteng lead the way as he made a blistering qualifying lap of 1:16.90, the official all time lap record for SIR. Amazing newcomer Uly Maningding qualified second as he vowed to show the champion what he was capable of.

The first race saw a lot of carnage and Jody Coseteng put forth what could arguably be one of his best performances to date. Going into the first turn on the first lap, Coseteng was nudged by Uly Maningding causing him to spin and slightly hit the inside concrete barrier. Maningding suffered some damages as well to his front bumper but was able to recover immediately. From the back of the grid, Coseteng slowly inched his way up lap by lap. It took only 3 laps before Jody was back in front of the grid again. As a result of the contact, Maningding lost his front bumper and had to settle for 4th place. 2nd place went to Kookie Ramirez while brother Louis took 3rd.

In Group 3, Alvin Santos and JP Carino put out an incredible battle during the closing laps of the race. Going into the final turn on the final lap, Santos and Carino were basically neck and neck, Santos was able to edge out Carino to take the checkered by a mere 3/10 of a second! Chris Guevarra settled for third while Mike Tuason, who was having handling issues took 4th.

After the collision in the first race, both Jody Coseteng and Uly Maningding were eager to challenge each other again the 2nd race. This time though it was all Coseteng as he lead the race from start to finish. Maningding was showing a great performance as well until the closing part of the race where he had to stop near the bus-stop because of transmission problems. Gremlins also played their part with Kookie Ramirez, who suffered a blown engine, thereby ruining his chances of getting a good finish. Coming in at third was Dennis Uy, who managed to run very consistent laptimes.

In Group 3, it was again Alvin Santos, JP Carino, and Chris Guevarra who got podium finished. This time though the action wasn't as close as the first race as Santos was able to pull away a from JP Carino early on in the race.

20 photos