Race Report: 2012 Shell Slalom Series 3rd Leg

The 3rd leg of the 2012 Shell Slalom Series was held last April 22 in the recently-refurbished SM Southmall. The sounds of pissed-off four-bangers and the smell of rapidly-balding Federal 595EVOs wafted in the suburb city of Las Pinas. The usual suspects were present to kick the Kuhol Automotive Racing Team’s, or KART’s, Korean car keester. And they did, especially since we once again brought the KART B-car, a laughably bone-stock Hyundai Elantra, to the plate.

We love SM Southmall because it is very close to the kuhol.net Garage, like the previous slalom leg at SM Sucat. The allotted space for the track was quite small, thus making Southmall  the proverbial Monaco of slalom racing. Like the  Monegasque municipality, the renovated mall is quite posh, and its selling space design is up there with the tarted-up North Edsa and the massive MOA. Like the casino in Monte Carlo,  the mall is also after your hard-earned money.

Southmall has a generously-sized Booksale, the used books store, at the lower ground floor. After eating our lumpiang sariwa at the food court, we headed there to get some automotive magazines. (Nothing beats reading a car rag while you have the background noise of 4AGE’s revving their nuts off. Seriously, try it.) We saw Mr. Lito Dulce leafing through the racks and obtaining an alarmingly huge pile of magazines, the amount of which would threaten to strain any marital relationship. We had fun conversing with Mr. Dulce, who is one-half of the husband-wife team that make up Race Motorsports Club (the organizer of the Shell Slalom Series). He is a super-knowledgeable car enthusiast with lots of anecdotes and insights that could only come from wisdom and experience. Really, what this man doesn’t know about cars is not worth knowing.

As we said, we again brought the stock white Elantra out to play. Project Elantra was unavailable again due to some glitches, but we hope that the car can be fully sorted by the next leg. But this time, the lack of power and the general crappiness of the stock car was not really that much of a problem. As the course was tight, more powerful cars are unable to exploit their power advantage due to the lack of long straightaways. The nimble Starlets notwithstanding, we were more afraid of nimbler FWD cars like Patrick Bautista’s ludicrous Toyota Echo, a car with a wheelbase shorter than the white car’s, and with a body that doesn’t use heavy metal more apt for ocean-going vessels. And having been racing in various disciplines since at least 2006, he had a sizable skill advantage. At the end of the day, our fears have come true as he was like two to three seconds faster than us. A gem of a guy, though.

We started this season with support from Prima Water Works and Haltech Philippines. Starting this leg, we also welcome the support provided by Pocari Sweat, whose eponymous Ion Supply Drink was a godsend for the sweltering summer heat of April. We learnt that one of the slalom stewards races pedal bikes as a day job, and he testifies that Pocari Sweat is very essential in rehydrating the body during and after a long cycling leg. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our sponsors for helping us in our racing endeavours.

The practice session was marred by a small mishap experienced by the legendary Racing Doctor, Peewee Mendiola. And by small mishap, we meant his rear wheel fell off! Otherwise the event was free of problems and accidents, and Doc Peewee still ruled over the rest with the fastest time of the day with an elapsed time of 39.12 seconds. Hot on the heels was the multi-discipline racer Milo Rivera clocking in a mere .12 seconds behind. Fellow racers Pompy Yambao and Abet Reyes were the fastest FWD and Novice drivers, respectively.

By a surprising twist of fate, we won our first classes of the season in Open A, Open C, and Front Wheel Modified, and got a runner-up spot in Novice Modified C. Our fastest time of 45.22 was only good for 4th in the Front Wheel Injected class, but managed to attract attention from fellow racers, with them commenting, “Not bad, for a stock car.” Maybe we can improve when Project Elantra shakes off its bugs.

kuhol.net Automotive Racing Team Results

Open C: 1st

Open A: 1st

Front Wheel Modified: 1st

Novice Modified C: 2nd

Front Wheel Injected: 4th

Front Wheel Injected Novice: 4th

Front Wheel Modified Novice: 4th