Cars, Community, Events, Lifestyle

Hats Off to the First Santa Rosa Motorfest 2008

There it was. An invite to the first Santa Rosa Motorfest to be held in SM Sta Rosa, courtesy of Omnisource International, the same guys who hosted the Auto Summit 2008. The first, I noticed, which made me wonder: if Santa Rosa is the virtually the conutry’s capital city for car manufacturers, why hasn’t there been a major car show event until now? Thanks to the efforts of the city and Councilor Arnel Gonzales, an event befitting the “Motorcity of the Philippines” was finally being held in the locality. Santa Rosa being the city it is, hip and modern, but rich in history and culture, I figured this would be an interesting event to see.

So early morning, a few Saturdays ago (November 8, to be exact), lugging some cameras around with Editor in Chief Betty, I found myself on a road trip to SM Santa Rosa. After a good hour and a half worth of driving, after having breakfast at Tuding’s, and driving by some interesting shops in the locale (ever heard of Impacho Diner? Or Tongue in a Mood Resto / Bar?!?!), we were at SM Santa Rosa being shown around the event area by people from Omnisource. We also had a nice chat with Councilor Arnel Gomez (Betty’s got a writeup coming up about that), the folks from SM Santa Rosa, and Jean-Marc (aka Jeff) Freihuber, the managing director of City Kart, which was an event partner (they had a karting track set up in one of the parking lots). There was a motorcade led by Jean-Marc with two seriously souped-up karts, together with some of the show participants, which pushed through even though there was a light drizzle. After the motorcade, there was a ribbon cutting ceremony with Mrs. Josefina Arcillas, Councilor Gomez, and SM Santa Rosa executives to officially inaugurate the first Santa Rosa Motorfest.

The usual mix of show cars and manufacturers were present. Some of the manufacturers present were Kia, Suzuki, Chevrolet, Nissan, BMW, and Honda. They were unveiling new models to the public, and even had test drives for their latest models. Of course the show cars were there too. Various cars and clubs were on display and most of the clubs were from the South. One of the highlights of the show was the DB Drag and SPL Sound Off competition. Another fun feature was the karting clinic sponsored by City Kart Racing, which we didn’t get to try (aw…). They prepared an expansive track on the parking lots to one side of the mall.

An array of street and show cars was on display, ranging from mild street customs to wild show cars. My personal favorite of the show include Councilor Arnel’s (or rather, his brother’s) 1973 yellow Sprinter, the rally-inspired Suzuki Swift of TRA, the orange Honda Jazz of Signal, the pink and purple Toyota Rav4 of Grupo Rav4 and the wicked custom rides from One Caviteño. One Caviteño’s rides surely made a great appearance for these show, as their cars have Lambo doors and custom one-off paint jobs. They are literally art on wheels. Kid Audio also made another appearance with their familiar white Toyota Fortuner. As usual, a mix of eastern and western cars with different styling modifications made for an interesting car show. I won’t bother you with cute words and adjectives. I’ll let the pictures do the talking as describing the show participants probably won’t do them justice.

The karting clinic offered a great opportunity to drive one of these little monsters. The track layout was simple yet challenging enough. Here you can learn the basics of driving and racing. If it hadn’t been too hot that day I would’ve gotten Betty drive on the track.

Late in the afternoon, there was another series of events: a mini concert with River Maya over on the adjacent lot, still courtesy of the organizers of the show. And in the evening, one of the highlights of the event was the DB Drag and SPL Sound Off Competitions.

The Santa Rosa Motorfest ran for two days. It was a bit short, but a successful event nevertheless. I will be looking forward to next year’s Motorfest, and surely it will be bigger and better, as more participants become involved. Since it’s organized by the automobile manufacturing capital of the Philippines, I hope next year’s event will bring in more support from the local manufacturers. To Councilor Gomez and the Santa Rosa city government, OmniSource International, and SM Santa Rosa, hats off to you guys for supporting the car show industry with more shows.

List of winners of the Sound Off Compettiton

1-300w
1st - Ariane Legarte / Kia Rio - Team Pokemon
301-600w
1st - James Lacorte / Toyota Avanza - Autostar
601-1000w
1st Danilo Briones / Toyota Vios – Vios Club Philippines
1201w-up
1st Terry dela Rosa / Toyota Corolla - Bombsquad

LoudBurpz
S1 1st Danilo Briones / Toyota Vios
2nd Mars Ranola / Honda City - Bombsquad
S2 1st Terry dela Rosa / Toyota Corolla - Bombsquad
M1 1st Mars Ranola / Honda City – Bombsquad
M3 1st Ruel Tolentino / Toyota Lucida - Gigawatts
M4 1st Mark Nico Alonzo / Mitsubishi Galant - Gigawatts
M6 1st James Lacorte / Toyota Avanza - Autostar<
W6-8 1st Matthew Rizal / Honda Civic - Gigawatts

Anarchy
1st Frederick de Guzman / Mitsubishi Pajero - Kid Audio

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