Tribute rally sees new breed of racers

The driver-navigator pair of Patrick Ng and Nixon Bollozos sped their Toyota Rav 4 from the RS UV class with the best overall time through a grizzled field to cop the championship in the final round of the 2022 RallySprint Series held at the Naval Magazine, Subic Freeport, Zambales last 5 November.

With a total time of 0:33:20, Ng and Bollozos led a field of 24 competitors to win in their class after ten special stages within a challenging almost 80-kilometer distance in the third round of the series, which was also dubbed the Paeng Nodalo Memorial Rally as a tribute to one of the pillars of motorsports in the country.

Meantime, taking top place in the RS 3 class is the tandem of Mon Dimapilis and Alex Lao who drove a Honda Civic for a cumulative time of 0:33:53, while Kody Ng and Johann Sy emerged victorious in the RS 2 class using a BMW E36 with a 0:35:50 finish.

Dindo de Jesus and Boyet Santiago, on the other hand, captured top honors in the RS Open class using a Honda Civic with a cumulative time of 0:36:52.

Ricky Montelibano and Nani Juarez placed top in the RS 4 class with their Toyota Corolla finishing with 0:36:53, while the father and son tandem of Mike and Bernard Santos triumphed in RS 1 class with a total time of 0:41:01 using a Toyota Corolla.

Albert Narciso, event chief scrutineer and part of the organizing committee of the event promoted by the Road & Rally Management Corporation and the Hill Climb Club of the Philippines, was elated with how the current field of rally racers has grown with the RallySprint series' revival this year showing how alive the rally community after several dormant years and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

"Most of these (current racers) are already new blood. And that's what we want. My wish (is) we want to pass it on. We don't want it to die," he continued.

Narciso pointed out that there had been more and more racers joining the races and excelling on their own, which was the group's intent to revive the sport and relive its heyday.

"One time, Blue (Reyna, RallySprint organizing committee chairman) and I were saying let's bring back rally because we really love the sport. That's why we tried reviving it. It's not like any other," Narciso shared in an interview with Daily Tribune.

The first two rounds of the RallySprint series, which were also held in the Subic Freeport, saw a field of 20 and 15 racers respectively, with the lower turnout in the second round being attributed to a two-month gap as each round has been usually separated by only a month in between.

At the same time, the RallySprint series started relatively late in the year as the first round was held in June and the second in September which was already the onset of the rainy season. Usually, rally races are held in January and ending by mid-year, after which another season will commence in the second half.

"(But) this is still very promising because we had 25 (in the third round). So we're excited for next year," Narciso enthused as he shared that next year would probably start earlier and have five rounds of competition instead of just three.

The organizers named the final RallySprint round in memory of Raphael "Paeng" Nodalo, whose family business is into the supply of car exhaust systems, was himself heavily involved in local auto rallying in the 1970s. Nodalo, who was named the Philippine Rally Driver of the Year in 1995, passed away in August 2020 at the age of 60.

"When we started we were all greenhorns. Then, there was this guy, Paeng Nodalo, with a big, big, big heart. His whole family adopted us. We did not pay any food, the only thing we would do is chip (to pay for hiring) the mechanics, and we learned a lot from him. It's a pity he passed away early. But he was the biggest pillar for us, for our team," Narciso related.

Aside from top podium finishes in various motorsport categories, Nodalo also founded the Nodalo's Rallye Team which nurtured and produced several auto rally champions in prestigious competitions over the years until his death in 2020.

Narciso shared that he and his contemporaries have encouraged new racers to continue pursuing the sport, which entails not just souping up the car for performance enhancements but also skill in controlling the vehicle and on-point navigation to complete grueling stages under extreme driving conditions.

"Every time I get to meet new navigators, I always go to them and tell them what to do because for a first timer, it's scary," Narciso said.

While getting enough participants is one thing, local rally races are also hardly conducive to be spectator sports since the special stages are set outside the comforts of urban settings as the usual selected locations are in low-traffic thoroughfares that could be closed down. Also, stage times could run from mid-afternoon to midnight.

"The only thing hard with this sport especially in the Philippines is it's not like in Europe that there is a spectator area. Here, no one will come here at 1 o'clock or in the evening so it's so hard to get sponsors. But we're trying," Narciso continued.