We’re a people with short memories and our salvation from life’s vagaries lies in that national character. This month of May will not be one of continuing dismay from the agonies of deaths in April. On the contrary, we have just walked into the merry month of May.

Right on the first of the month, we sauntered into #AdoréSkinLaunch, a stone’s throw from the astonishing Pasig Rainforest Park (though the Adore Skin Clinic is at the corner of Scout Gandia St. and Mother Ignacio Ave. in Quezon City). 

The launch venue was at the rooftop of LPI Centre Two at Luis St. in Pasig. We immediately forgot the heat with a flood of beautiful women in fashionable white outfits that showed off more than enough smooth skin. In that bevy of beauties was ABS-CBN’s sweet morena actor Nikki Valdez as the clinic’s main endorser. And, oh, boy! Even the dinner was gorgeous, especially the roast beef and pork lechon. There was almost a flood of food and wine at the buffet table and the bar.

May might as well be the month of resurrection in the realm of entertainment for actor Jomari Yllana — resurrection from being a three-term councilor in Parañaque. However, Yllana’s entertainment turf these days is not the movies and TV. It’s car racing events for which he is a producer. 

He first did a grand racing event in Parañaque in August 2023 with Okada Manila as a partner. He is back with them in Motorsport Carnivale 2025, opening on 4 May. The event’s media launch was held on Tuesday at noon, 29 April, at the hotel’s Glass Ballroom.

Motorsport Carnivale 2025 opening event will be a super sprint at Boardwalk and Gardens, the seaside area just outside Okada Manila. This will be from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

At 7 p.m., there will be an exhibit of award-winning race cars. It’s dubbed “Grand Car Meet: Legends of the ‘90s.” On 31 May will be the Jom’s Cup, a 1/8-mile drag racing challenge.

On 21 to 22 June, Yllana reveals, Motorsport Carnivale will stage “the biggest rally event in the Philippines” and close down main roads in the area of Entertainment City, where a special stage will be built for the rally, similar to the style of Monaco.

“It will be a night race,” said Yllana, “Rikki (Dy-Liacco, his managing partner) is looking at 25 to 40 maximum participants. So, they will be the cream of the crop in a super special stage. We will have to close roads and end on the Boardwalk also, so spectators will see.”

Motorcar racing has been Yllana’s passion for nearly three decades, off and on. With his leadership in Motorsport Carnivale 2025, he intoned: “We have awakened a sleeping giant. Through this event, we are reminded of the passion that fuels our local motorsport scene — and we’re just getting started anew. We need this 2025 event to take off. When this one takes off, expect next year that we’ll do international events already.”

Since the time of the Gwapings, when Jomari was still a teenager and a young actor, he was among the brave ones who joined groups that would go to Greenhills and race for bets. They all knew that what they were doing was illegal.

In 1996, though, Yllana was picked by Toyota Team Tom’s to be a professional race car driver. “I learned a lot from that. That started my advocacy for road safety and to promote legal races. That was until 2002.”

His dad (Andres Yllana) urged him to retire when his eldest, Andre, was born. “Sabi ng dad ko, narating mo na lahat (You’ve achieved everything),” Jomari shared. “Hindi pa international, I told him. He said, ‘wag na. baka diyan ka pa ma-chambahan. May apo na ako. May anak ka na (Don’t do it. You might end up in trouble there. I already have a grandson. You already have a son)’.”