{"id":7729,"date":"2019-04-11T02:03:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T02:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queencitycebu.com\/?p=7729"},"modified":"2023-12-15T09:12:58","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T09:12:58","slug":"history-first-philippine-grand-prix-was-held-in-cebu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queencitycebu.com\/history-first-philippine-grand-prix-was-held-in-cebu\/","title":{"rendered":"HISTORY: First Philippine Grand Prix in Cebu"},"content":{"rendered":"
Clamors rage on the ability of the Philippines to host an F1 race after the recent trademark filings done by Formula One Licensing BV which happened early January this year. While this remains a debate, it\u2019s good thing to know that a huge interest in such sport still exists among Filipinos. Did you know that much of racing\u2019s history happened in Cebu?<\/p>\n
Filipinos have long developed a love for racing. In fact, long before bicycle racing began in the 1890s, carabaos and horses have been on dirt tracks on different regions in the country. In 1937, dealers of Luneta Motor Company, Chrysler and Plymouth<\/strong>, presented the first automobile stunt show at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum which aimed to demonstrate the safety aspects of an \u201call-steel\u201d enclosed vehicle models for racing. In the \u201850s, car racing was revived and circuits were duly established in the tracks of Santa Ana, Makati and Nicholas Air Base. This was where the great Arsenio \u201cDodjie\u201d Laurel<\/strong> started his racing career in motorsports.<\/p>\n Dodjie Laurel then became the pioneer of Philippine Motorsports<\/strong>. Later, he founded the Cam Wreckers Association,<\/strong> the first formal car club in the country, and earned the moniker \u201cFather of Philippine Karting\u201d<\/strong> as he became active in other forms of racing. His name became known in the internationals after championing successively in 1962 and 1963 the prestigious Macau Grand Prix.<\/strong> Sadly, he was also the very first fatality of the same competition in 1967 after his car crashed, hit the seawall, and burst into flames causing his entrapment and immediate death.<\/p>\n Though car racing in the Philippines was put to stop in 1956 because of an accident, this absurdly resulted to more and more people getting interested into motorsports as means of competition. When Soap Box Derby<\/strong> was introduced in the Philippines, boys aging 11 \u2013 15 became engrossed in competing using homemade engineless cars. Since then, derbies were held sponsored by Better Boys Association (and many others) until early \u201870s. In 1962, a derby was held in Pardo, Cebu which was sponsored by the Cebu Jaycees<\/strong> wherein the local winner represented the country in the International Soap Box Derby competition Akron, Ohio.<\/p>\n