Toyota’s Vios Cup welcomes bigger grid, more classes for 2016

1240
Vios Cup 2016

With only a few weeks to go ’til the 2016 season begins, the Vios Cup finally gets the green light. And as expected from the “biggest motorsports event in the country,” this year is only going to get bigger.

The tools may not have changed, with the Vios Cup Car still the weapon of choice, but a lot of other things has. The biggest of which is the revised classes. It’s no longer based on qualifying times, which means driver classification remains constant throughout the season, and has since been increased from 2 to 3.

There’s now a new ‘Super Sporting Class’ that’s added on top of the Sporting and Promotional Classes. As the name suggests, it’s reserved for the Top 20 drivers from 2015 where they’re all required to have a National B License to compete. This way, the best-of-the-best can go at each other on track, hopefully showing the other boys (and girls) how clean racing should be.

Meanwhile, the Top 10 finishers in last year’s Promotional Class has been bumped up to the Sporting Class, including celebrity drivers Sam YG and Phoemela Baranda. As always, the Promotional Class is where all the newbies, oldies, ladies, and other celebrities go.

Although technically there were 63 drivers in 2015, they didn’t all share the same track at any given time. That’s why the 55 names slated for Round 1 is by far the biggest in Toyota Motor Philippines’ (TMP) history. The list includes familiar faces such as defending champions Andres Calma and Miguel Diaz, as well as the pretty faces of Derek Ramsay, Joyce Pring, Fabio Ide, and Jinno Rufino. But sadly, 2014 champion Luis Gono will not be part of the grid this year… or at least, not yet.

There are also new celebrity drivers that you may have heard of. Jericho Rosales is scheduled to make his race debut this weekend, while Miss World 2013 Megan Young and actress/singer Arci Munoz will follow suit in later rounds.

2016 Vios Cup Race Calendar
Round 1 | March 18/19 (Clark International Speedway)
Round 2 | May 21/22 (Filinvest, Alabang)
Round 3 | September 9/11 (Bacolod)
Round 4 | November 4/6 (TBA)

Here is the complete entry list for the 2016 Vios Cup.

Car No. Driver Team
Super Sporting Class
97 Andres Calma Toyota Alabang
26 Allan Uy Toyota Quezon Ave
77 Basti Escalante Toyota Otis
15 Bobby Domingo Toyota Alabang
55 Bryan Co Toyota Dagupan
11 Carlos Loinaz Barako Racing
99 Charlie Cojuangco Toyota Dagupan
20 Daniel Miranda Toyota Balintawak
25 Dominic Ochoa Toyota Quezon Ave
23 Estefano Rivera Toyota Alabang
42 Jette Calderon Toyota Cebu
28 Pauland Dumlao Toyota San Fernando
27 Ramon Tanjuatco Toyota Quezon Ave
87 Raymond Ronquillo Toyota Balintawak
78 Victor Buensuceso Toyota Makati
30 Paul Lomax
32 Keith Haw
Sporting Class
94 Alexis Salvador Toyota San Fernando
99 Danilo Cruz
78 Ferdie Raquelsantos Toyota Makati
21 Jeje Villena Barako Racing
24 JV Ejercito Toyota North EDSA
43 Lord Seno
96 Miguel Diaz
31 Mikko Maristela Toyota Quezon Ave
3 Michinobu Sugata Toyota Motor Philippines
85 Paolo Rodriguez Toyota San Fernando
12 Phoemela Baranda TMP Celebrity
70 Sean Velasco
41 Steve Bicknell Toyota San Fernando
6 Sam YG TMP Celebrity
33 Tonton Ramos Toyota San Fernando
88 Robert Lilles Toyota Marilao
35 Sherwin Hing Toyota Quezon Ave
58 Brian Giles
45 Sam Grimes
57 Ben Grimes
Promotional Class
98 Bobby Pangilinan
68 Bombi Palillo Toyota Cabanatuan City
16 Dimble Napat
18 Aira Merdano
84 EN Sta Romana Toyota Cabanatuan City
44 Ferdinand Dysico
80 Oscar Suarez
50 Marc Martinez
53 Kiko Dysico
81 Red Diwa
69 Roy / Rudy Bunag
36 Evelyn Coseteng
22 Tomohiro Iwamoto Toyota Motor Philippines
14 Derek Ramsay TMP Celebrity
5 Fabio Ide TMP Celebrity
8 Jericho Rosales TMP Celebrity
10 Jinno Rufino TMP Celebrity
7 Joyce Pring TMP Celebrity
WordPress Tables Plugin

The 2016 Vios Cup is in partnership with Bridgestone and Rota, supported by Motul, TRD, Brembo, Denso, AVT, OMP, and Tuason Racing.