The Motorsport Development Program (MSDP) is the country’s ONLY grassroots training platform that turns young talented individuals into future race car drivers. They’ve been at it since 2015, now producing 2 sets of graduates, with help from a very special partner.
Mazda Philippines has supported the MSDP as far back as we could remember. These genuine nice guys supply them with race/school cars, entry to the 8 Hour Philippine Endurance Challenge, plus a ton of moral support. It has become such a fruitful endeavor that Mazda decided to renew its partnership with the Automobile Association Philippines (AAP). And with the new agreement comes 5 brand new Mazda 2 SkyActiv hatchbacks which the MSDP will use to train their future racing talents.
“It is really important to start out learning how to drive well,” shared Steven Tan, Mazda Philippines President and CEO. “It is less useful to be criticizing driving on the road because we all have to do our part in teaching people the right way to drive. We are proud to be associated with the AAP in supporting MSDP. It started off small 2 years ago and now that the program has taken off, we are very encouraged with the results. And this is why we decided to give AAP 5 fresh Mazda 2 cars for them to use in the MSDP. This is one program that really works.“
The new school cars were turned over last 22nd of June 2017 during the MSDP’s Module 1 training workshop. Mazda Philippines also took the opportunity to launch the ‘Jinba Ittai Academy’ which “not only aims to share Mazda’s philosophy of connecting the driver with his car to make driving fun and engaging, but to also correlate this with proven driving techniques and Mazda’s design and engineering innovations that together enhance car control and elevate driving pleasure.”
Okay… That was helpful.
Whatever the ‘Jinba Ittai Academy’ is, we guess we’ll find out in due time.
“Our mantra is to make motorsports, safe, fair and affordable,” said Mandy Eduque, AAP Motorsports Committee Chair. “The objective of our Motorsport Development Program is not only to get drivers interested in racing but more importantly, to make them learn how to drive properly on and off the track. The support of Mazda is very important to the MSDP. The partnership has worked very well for us these past 3 years. So I’d like to take this occasion to really thank Mazda for the support and we hope to continue this relationship for a long time for the betterment of motorsports.”
For more info, Like the AAP Motorsport Development Program page on Facebook.
