2001 PDRF: Raymond Go of Autoplus dominates field with 10.672 ET

Manila's 4-cylinder turbocharged Hondas and Mitsubishis did battle with the V6 and V8 muscle cars of the Angeles Hot Rodders Association at the Manila Harbour Centre Dragway. Manila's best showed up in full-force as Raymond Go of Autoplus led the way with his Quickest Car in the Philippines Turbocharged Civic while AHRAs top bet Ken Kepner ran with his Camaro.

The event had a total of 71 participants, a very big number for the PDRF as even the organizers were surprised by this. Nonetheless, they were very proud of their hosting the quickest cars in the land.

The races were not only great but exciting indeed as Raymond Go of Autoplus piloted their Turbocharged Civic Hatchback to reset his record of 'Quickest Quarter-mile time'. He blazed down the 1/4-mile track in 10.7 seconds and backed it up by a 10.672 sec. run during qualifying.

The excitement did not end with the record-breaking run. The Quick-8 class had an awesome line-up; the quickest lineup in Philippine drag racing. Three turbocharged Honda Civic hatchbacks, two Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI, a Mitsubishi Eclipse, a Ford Mustang, and a Nissan Skyline GT-R were the cars in the Quick-8 class.

Much excitement in the Quick-8 class ensued as the final showdown between Matonetics' Mato Tan and Raymond Go was indeed a heart-pounding split-of-a-second for both camps. Go, having problems with his two-step launcher lost the headstart to Tan. He was lucky enough to catch up midway when Tan ran into minor problems. From midway, Go stormed through the finish in style taking home Quick-8 top honors.

Exciting indeed was the event, but the timetable was not. The event started at 8 in the evening with 71 cars to run. You can just imagine how long it would take.

"The impressive runs by the 4-cylinder turbo cars caught us by surprise indeed. We were hoping for Ken (Kepner) to get the best ET of the day. It's great to see 1/4-mile ET's like these here in the Philippines," said an AHRA member.

John Rizya went on with the attack which led to mid to low 11-second passes, but unfortunately for him; problems with the newly installed transmission ensued causing him to retire early on during qualifying.

With Rizya out, this left Ken Kepner and Rob Hyde left for the AHRA camp. Rob Hyde stormed the strip with his 'Viper' with impressive mid-12-second runs. After a few more runs, Hyde decided to swap carburetors with teammate John Rizya whose car already retired. The swap was indeed a good choice as Hyde stormed down with low 12 second runs.