Philippine Autocross Championship Series round-2 Davao City

The second round of the Philippine Autocross championship series was held last Saturday at SM City Davao parking-C. It was another all out battle between league defending champion 2008 driver of the year Pietro Jaldon and 2009 Round-1 overall winner George Arquiza. Both drivers had a head to head battle in the opening stages of the race were the track was still dry. Both drivers quickly manage to clock in impressive lap times during the first heat of the race with 1:11.54 for Jaldon and 1:10.60 for Arquiza. However in the second heat, George Arquiza was able to adjust quickly on the track designed by Danny Santiago, clocks in the fastest time of the day and only on his second run at 1:08.78 while Jaldon improved only 1:11.40.

The track at SM City was a very tight track with a hard left & right going in to the start finish line. After a few heats of the opening stages of the race, the rain pour in and the race still goes on. Drivers had a hard time managing the track especially Hernel Jao of Phat Speed sporting his Toyota GT turbo. Jao made 3rd place overall during the 1st round and is one of the favorites in the race, due to wet track he only manages 1:15.79.

Late in the afternoon, the tracks somehow dried up with some few puddles and Jaldon has four chances of beating Arquiza, this time Jaldon uses Michael Cong’s Honda Hatch EG, but Jaldon only manages 1:09.05, making Arquiza back to back overall winners since the opening round of the series, Jaldon came close 2nd place with only 0.27 of a second difference from Arquiza and a surprise on 3rd place is Sid Datukon clocks in at 1:13.04. IN the overall championship points for the 2009 Driver of the year, Arquiza has a four point over the defending champion Pietro Jaldon.