2007 Tough Truck Challenge

The 7th staging of the annual Tough Truck Challenge organized by the Manila Off-Roaders Inc. (MORI), attracted a total of sixty participants coming from as far as the Northern and Southern parts Luzon. The event was held at the Frontera Verde compound in Pasig City. The two-day weekend event featured non-stop NAsFOR sanctioned off-road action which included a nice mudbath for the competitors as they waded through a stretch of muddy waters in the track.

Conquering Track A with the fastest elapsed time was NAsFOR President and 2008 National Driver of the Year Roger Peyra of the Bicol Off-Road Club with a 1m27.22s run. Peyra's time was just a little over a second faster than teammate Ramon Uy who clocked in at 1m28.88s, while coming in third with a 1m29.10s run was Jeremie Lo also of the Bicol Off-Road Club. In 4th and 5th consecutively were Gerry Evangelista of the Science City Off-Roaders and Gilbert Maningas of the Del Monte 4 Wheelers.

Jojo Sison of the Ilagan 4 Wheelers pulled a last-minute upset to Track B standings leader Ramon Uy with a mere three-tenths of a second advantage. Sison clocked a 1m12.13s run beating Uy's 1m12.44s time. Roger Peyra claimed third place with a 1m13.72s elapsed time. Coming in 4th and 5th respectively were Jun Gumiran of the Butaka and Neil Andaya of the Pangasinan Off-Road Club.

In the finals, competitors were to challenge a more difficult Track C, where Tracks A and B were combined. The top twenty qualifiers competed for the coveted Tough Truck Challenge 2008 Crown. They were (according to seeding), Roger Peyra, Ramon Uy, Jojo Sison, Henry Policarpio, Jeremie Lo, Zaldy Fernando, Boyie Doblada, Gilbert Maningas, Raul Garcia, JR Angeles, Owen Bernardo, Noel Carbonnel, Larry Alberto, Rey Herrera, Luisito Lorenzo, Avel Delas Alas, Manuel Carbonnel, Pol Herrera, Marvin Isidro, and Omar Alivia.

Finishing runner-up in the previous year, Ramon Uy was bent on taking the crown this year, Uy brought out his best performance as he clocked in at 1m26.78s. Top seed Peyra only managed to clock in a time of 2m35.84s which was not enough to keep the top position, he was relegated to runner-up in the overall standings. It still made for a 1-2 finish for the Bicol Off-Road Club, who incidentally took the NAsFOR Team of Year Title. Despite clocking in the second-best time in Track C, Gilbert Maningas was unable to edge out Del Monte 4 Wheelers teammate Zaldy Fernando who managed to take third place overall with less than a second of advantage. Coming in fifth was Boyie Doblada of BRO/LCCP who was merely three-tenths of a second away from Maningas. Rounding up the top ten finishers were, Jeremie Lo (Bicol Off-Road Club), Jojo Sison (Ilagan 4 Wheelers), JR Angeles (SCOR/Munoz), Henry Policarpio (Del Monte 4 Wheelers), and Larry Alberto (Suzuki 4x4 Club).

The 2007 Tough Truck Challenge was sponsored by Shell, Ride, 199 Off-Road House, Bilstein, Berrima Diesel Service, Asian Spirit, Du Pont, Lan Cru 4x4 Parts, DP Chip, Auto Express, Car Option, Motorcraft Service Shop, AutoIndustriya.com, Monster Radio RX93.1, Stoplight TV and Frontera Verde.