Edgesport’s Dy-Liacco Clocks 3rd Fastest

Team Release:
Round 1
2007 Hill Climb Series

Edgesport multi-titled rally, touring car and slalom champion Rikki Dy-Liacco, driving one of the smallest cars in the field clocked an impressive 3rd fastest in Round 1 of the 2007 Hill Climb series organized by the Philippine Hill Climb Club, despite donning his helmet for the first time in five years.

Last minute bugs kept the entire team working ‘round the clock in getting the 1.3 liter Toyota Starlet turbo that had been salvaged literally from a heap of junk back to life.

Dy-Liacco, currently based in Southern China, arrived specifically for the event in an attempt to renew his bid having won several different championship titles in his motor racing career.

“When I traded competitive motor racing as a driver back in 2002, I vowed to return and when the team offered me this opportunity, I knew I just had to take it. Five years has been too long and I couldn’t wait any longer,” exclaimed the Zhuhai Int’l Circuit-based ART Motorsports executive.

There was only one official practice run prior to the first heat which, for the inexperienced made it extremely difficult to maximize speed in each corner. “The stage was quite interesting. There were numerous corners where the exits were too deep to see that backing off was the safer thing to do but if you’re able to read the road properly and remained confident that the car would handle it, keeping your foot down albeit blindly was the way to go. Satisfaction is when you’re able to maintain or increase your speed despite the fear of a possible error in judgment. Each time you’re able to get away with it, you knew you were on the right track towards a competitive time,” confided Dy-Liacco on how he managed to propel the small-engined Starlet to third against over 40 other competitors.

“The result was far from what we expected and is extremely gratifying. We built up the car from scratch using this round as its maiden outing aiming only to produce a respectable time. The result has turned into a major source of motivation in going for the next two rounds of the series. All the effort that has been put in has paid well,” commented team manager Gary Songco.

Dy-Liacco’s time of 1:34.09, achieved on his second run was an improvement of a little over 1.5 seconds from his previous attempt. “The car was far from perfect but I have no complaints about how it all went. I believe the car achieved what it can do and we finished with absolutely no problems at all. With reliability issues done with, we can now focus on further developing the car,” enthused Dy-Liacco who bears 12 valuable points into the national championship.

Carlos Anton currently leads with 20 points followed by Alvin Santos with 15.

The 2007 Hill Climb series is the first of its kind organized in the Philippines and with the number of entries in its initial staging, it is expected to be highly successful. The format with which the organizing committee has laid out offers various classes where practically any vehicle, provided the prescribed safety standard is met, becomes eligible.

The next round of the series is slated on the last weekend of April and from input gathered from Dy-Liacco, further development is expected to be performed on the car. “Rikki has always been known not just for his ability to drive but his important role in car development. Input derived will surely play a key role in what next we should do”, added Songco.