Silver Tanto takes 'Fastest Mitsubishi' title with 10.917s 1/4-mile

Sel Yulo finally saw his Mitsubishi Evo V flash a 10.917-second pass, taking Fastest Mitsubishi title

Racing News

04/28/2003

After more than six months and three blown clutch assemblies costing more than P150,000 each, Sel Yulo finally saw his Mitsubishi Evo V flash a 10.917-second pass on the giant WCC scoreboard at the Omni Dragway, Clark Air Base last April 5. Yulo's Evo, driven by Mark Onrubia, is now seventh in the list of the elite Ten-Second Club of the Philippine Drag Racing Familysport.

The PDRF's X-Drags Power Festival was highlighted by record attempt runs to break the 10.671-second national record of Autoplus Sportzentrium's Raymond Go in the "Silver Bullet" turbo Civic on May 26, 2001. Aside from Yulo, Ken Kepner, and John Rizya of the Angeles Hot Rod Association and Subic's Frank Wilson tried but failed to grab the bragging rights from Go.

While Yulo's Evo V, nicknamed "Silver Tanto" broke Architect Manuel Go's 10.971 Fastest Mitsubishi record during a run against Rizya's Thunder Camaro, a pulverized clutch assembly prevented any backup run to make it official. Yulo's Evo, like Go's runs without nitrous oxide augmentation. The other Ten-Second Club members are Marverick Tan (Just Two Civic @ 10.83), Dondi Montecillo (Nissan R33 @ 10.74), and Rob Hyde (Camaro @ 10.969).

It was during the first heat on an 11-second heads-up run that Onrubia posted the 10.917 feat but red-lighted against Rizya. The second heat was tightly contested with Onrubia winning only by 0.002. While Rizya ran a better 11.394, his poor reaction time of 0.843 gave the win to Onrubia's 0.836 at 11.399 to even the score. Failing to make a final run due to broken clutches and transmission gears, they bowed to meet again on April 12 for a rematch also at Omni Aviation Dragway.

Earlier in the event, Kepner's 7.4-liter '71 Camaro and Wilson's "No Doubt" '67 Mustang Fastback ran 11.20s. Kepner, made dual 10.66 runs in a '69 Camaro during the Feb. 15 AHRA event but failed to back it up at the Feb. 22 PDRF races. Wilson's 9.1-liter Mustang, piloted by Jeff Estella, is currently the Fastest Ford in the country.