2008 Lateral Drift Championship Round 3

The skies opened up and poured down on the track delaying the start of the third round of the Lateral Drift Championship at the Greenhills Promenade Parking Lot, San Juan City. However, this did not stop twenty-eight competitors from taking their cars out and doing what they love doing best - going sideways. It was only after midday when the weather improved signaling the start of the elimination round.

The action packed event was also graced by no less than City Mayor JV Ejercito himself, who rode shotgun with David Feliciano in an exhibition run while the preliminary scores were being tallied. Qualifying from the eliminations into the Top 16 were Giovan Bernardino, Jon Boban, Derrick Chiongbian, Jason Choachuy, Dan Javier, Naji Kassouf, Ian King, Atoy Llave, Jet Mathay, Joema Montaner, RJ Obiedo, Alex Perez, Bryan Revilla, Audel Sison, Kevin Tayao, and Mity Tuazon.

From the 16 into the Quarterfinal Top 8 Tandems were Perez, King, Choachuy, Montaner, Revilla, Sison, Bernardino, and Mathay. A more seasoned Bernardino easily dispatched rookie driver Mathay. Well-fought tandem runs between Perez and King; and Revilla and Sison gave the crowd an entertaining show. Perez and Sison would eventually advance. However, the most exciting battle for the crowd was when Montaner was chasing Choachuy and went wide on the Glade Sport turn clipping the curb damaging his rear suspension badly, handing over the win to Choachuy.

The semi-final matchups were Perez against Sison, while a high-intensity matchup was expected between Choachuy and Bernardino. Perez, who was simply on fire, quickly dispatched Sison in two runs. It was a different story between Choachuy and Bernardino who fought inches apart. However, a misjudgment by Bernardino midway through the Motul turn would cost him seriously as he overshoots and hits the curb damaging his front bumper and hot streak.

In the end, it was a showdown between Perez and Choachuy in a nerve wracking battle, which was quite difficult for the judges to decide, as both drivers were very talented and showed their best form in their tandem runs. But it was eventually decided that Perez would be the better driver taking the win to extend his championship lead. After having his win streak stopped by Kevin Tayao in the second round, Alex Perez would again reclaim his throne.

The 2008 Glade Sport Lateral Drift Championships is turbocharged by PLDT myDSL and partners Wave 891, Hotwire@studio23, Motul, C! Magazine, Maxim Magazine, the San Juan Jaycees and AutoIndustriya.com.

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