Toleman Motorsport Management, the company assisting V8 Supercars in getting the category to the Philippines, is confident that the event will go ahead in 2013.
V8 Supercars CEO Martin Whitaker has spent the past three days in the south east Asian country, working with the government on securing the backing for a race at the Clark air base circuit near Manila. CLICK HERE for more with Whitaker on the potential Philippines event.
Toleman Motorsport Management is playing the role of facilitator between V8 Supercars and the Philippine promotor, and Toleman commercial director Rafael Toda is bullish about the prospects of V8s making the journey to the Republic of the Philippines.
“We didn’t make the investment to come out here and do this if we didn’t think we have a good chance,” Toda told Speedcafe.com.
“We are very confident it will happen. Now it’s a matter of nutting out the finer details and all of that.
“It has been very interesting the deal that the Filipinos are putting in front of us here. They want to localise a lot of things and customise it to this market. The attraction to V8s is coming from these guys.”
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The addition of a race in the Philippines is another step towards V8 Supercars’ grand plan of hosting 18 events across the 2013 season, with six races to be held off Australian shores.
Toda says that when V8’s sold a majority stake in its business to Archer Capital in May, Ted Toleman and his motorsport management team started working with V8 Supercars to guide them towards the Philippines.
“Since V8s announced its expansion plans, we started looking at different options,” he said.
“We thought that the Philippines would be attractive for them.”
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Race Guide ahead of this week’s Coates Hire 300 at Queensland Raceway.
