The Miata Club Philippines was established in August 1997, not long after the Mazda MX-5 better known as the Miata was introduced to the Philippine market in 1996. The objective of the club is to give its members the opportunity to enjoy their cars together with other Miata enthusiasts.
The Miata was launched in 1989 and was already hugely successful by the time it was made available locally. In the US, Miata enthusiast have been racing their Miatas in a one make series sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America called Spec Miata.
The lead foots of MCP staged the first Miata Cup race in 2000. That makes 2009 Dunlop Miata Cup Championship (sponsored by Bosch and Dolan) the 10th edition of the clubs racing tradition. The Miata Cup has been blessed to have as its most distinguished competitor, the legend, Pocholo Ramirez. The first race for the 2009 will be called the Pocholo Ramirez Memorial Race in honor of our beloved friend and mentor. The Miata Cup is a one make series where only Miatas are allowed to compete. The rules have changed over the years, but in general, there have been two classes. For the highly skilled racers, we have the open class in which race prepared Miatas with full race suspensions and heavily modified engines compete. This class has occasionally been divided into FI class (for turbo charged or supercharged race cars) and the NA class (for race cars with naturally aspirated engines). For racing enthusiasts on a budget, there is the Street Class. Street class cars may carry some modifications provided that these cars are driven to and from the race track. Thus, street class cars are equipped with A/Cs , stereos and other creature comforts. This is a club race that is not sanctioned by the Automobile Association of the Philippines. But in the interest of safety, all competitors are required to take high performance driving lessons from either of the two recognized driving schools run by the Ramirez brothers and JP Tuazon. Competitors must also wear helmets and are encouraged to install roll bars.
Past champions of the Miata Cup include Juny Binamira, brothers Bubi and John Camus, Joey Pery, the legend Pocholo Ramirez, Ramon Bichara and Joey Almeda. Over the years, competitors included racers like Mike Aguilar, Chris Guevara, Lito Ignacio, Romy David, Romy Mercado, Joselu Romero-Salas, Dan Ho and Louie Camus. Enthusiast drivers included Alfie Rufino, Jojo Ozaeta, Rene Mapua, Chito Santiago, Jerry Jiao, Greg Germar, Allan Lavarro, Keith Sundiang, Jenny Tan, Lambert Ablaza, Lowell Tortona, Stanley Gobing, Chito Frondoso, Norman Castillo, and JR Tanpinco.
The 2009 Dunlop Miata Cup Championship will be featured as a support race for the AAP sanctioned Philippine Touring Car Championship. The Miata Cup races will be held on July 26, August 30, September 20, October 25 and November 29. This year,the Miata Cup is happy to welcome Dunlop, Bosch and Dolan as the principal sponsors. Past sponsors have included Yokohama, and Petron Treats.
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