Whether one is drawn to the thrill of driving on a racetrack or simply wants to feel more comfortable behind the wheel, going to a performance driving lesson or a track day can likely improve one’s driving skills and even discover what his or her car could actually be capable of performing.
It was what nearly 300 driving participants experienced last 2 to 4 February, at the Clark International Speedway as they participated in the exclusive three-day PGA Cars World of Supercars.
It was an event that gathered some of the Philippines’ best Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini and Bentley performance cars — and they were all available to be driven by participants at the fabled racetrack. Moreover, they were professionally coached by race drivers and Porsche-certified instructors from the Porsche Experience Center.
DURING the event, cars and drivers were grouped based on speed or experience level before that go for laps individually .
For that particular event, PGA Cars flew in Benjamin Rouget and Rodolfo Avila who, together with the team of fellow race drivers Georges Ramirez and Louis Ramirez, devised and supervised the immersive racetrack experience.
Rouget is a professional race driver with a portfolio spanning two decades. He has scored podiums and victories at the China GT and GT Master, CEC China Endurance, GT Asia, Porsche Carrera Cup Asia and France, French GT and GT Open, Formula Renault, and Formula 3 race series. He has also been coaching and training drivers in various Porsche track experiences since 2016.
Avila, meanwhile, counts among his career highlights podiums and wins at the Asian Formula Renault, Asian Formula 3, British F3, Asian Supercar Challenge, Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, TCR Asia and China, and the China Touring Car Championship. He has been a Porsche China instructor since 2010, and also manages race teams in various series.
A TRACK day is when drivers drive their car or a designated car on a race track.
The activities arranged for the participants were slalom, acceleration and water-wading driving exercises, as well as guided laps around the track. PGA Cars also provided guests the opportunity to test-drive or experience the features of the newest models on roads surrounding the Clark International Speedway.
After the supervised exercises, participants were brought to another thrilling open-track session that showed them how to get the most out of a Porsche as well as other high-performance car models available for testing.
After the event, the organizers are expecting that the participants would realize that the more they drive close, at, or past the limit, the more comfortable they would become behind the wheel, whether on or off the track.
