RADICAL Cars Philippines, in partnership with SEAOIL Philippines Inc., recently kick-started the holding of the 2022 SEAOIL Radical Challenge.
It takes its spot in Philippine motorsport history as the first and only local race series featuring an all-
Radical grid, making it the fastest race series in the country. The championship is powered by SEAOIL Extreme 97 Octane as its official fuel, with Motul Philippines, a co-presenter of the race series, providing the whole grid with its 300V Performance Oil.
The driver line-up features many familiar faces in the local racing circuit such as young talent Iñigo Anton, seasoned racers Stefan Ramirez, Jason Choachuy, Gibson Yu, JV Colayco, rookie racer Brian Poe, and Mark Bumgarner, a seasoned racer in his youth, now making his much-awaited return to motorsport. These drivers represent the well-known and respected teams participating in the series: Motul PartsPro (Iñigo), Illa Racing PartsPro (Brian), EnSport (Stefan), OTR Motorsport (Mark), and TrackHos (Jason, Gibson, and JV).
The race weekend started early last August 27 with a driver briefing. Race Director Marlon Stöckinger welcomed the drivers and team heads at the Motul paddock and briefed everyone on the rules and regulations of the championship, followed by a full day of five practice sessions for drivers and teams to prepare for Sunday’s races. At the lunch break, the organizers initiated a practice start session for drivers to get used to the rolling start procedure at the beginning of the race. Qualifying took place as the last session for the day.
It was a race against the weather as a light rain began to dampen the track at the start. Despite the sudden change in climate conditions, Iñigo Anton put out a dominant performance to secure pole position, followed closely by Mark Bumgarner in P2 and Stefan Ramirez in P3.
Sunday’s races saw another dominant performance by Iñigo by winning all three races in his Motul SR1, securing the top spot in the driver standings. Not far behind were Stefan and Mark in a heated battle for P2 in the standings with Stefan getting the upper hand in Race 1 and 2. Mark remained consistent throughout all three races by securing three consecutive podium finishes in P3 with his SEAOIL livery SR1. Jason Choachuy surprised everyone during Race 3 by starting in P4 and finishing in P2 in the only SR3 on the grid, securing big points for his team. Brian Poe started at the back of the grid after not being able to participate in the qualifying but was very much still in the fight after close battles with JV Colayco in Race 1 and Gibson Yu in Race 2.
There was also a decent number of spectators in attendance during race day, which is a good sign for any motorsport event, especially for a championship’s maiden race weekend. Present among the crowd supporting the race was SEAOIL Vice President for Corporate and Consumer Marketing Jayvee Dela Fuente and official dealer for Motul Philippines, Charlie Ong.
It was a fantastic first race weekend for the SEAOIL Radical Challenge and one for the history books. Two more weekends remain in the schedule from the 23rd to the 25th of September at the Batangas Racing Circuit.