Celebrated actress and television star Rhian Ramos will once again don on the red Toyota racing suit and go wheel to wheel with a grid of 31 race prepared Vios Cup cup cars in the highly anticipated Toyota Vios Cup this weekend, May 24, at the Clark International Speedway. And she is giving you the chance to ride along with her. Seriously.
It all started three weeks ago when Rhian became my first customer after I offered myself up as a personal chauffeur in a Maserati Quattroporte to raise funds for a colleague whose 2 month old daughter needed heart surgery. The photo that I posted of her in the back of the Maserati was enough to send the bidding war into a frenzy. From a lofty goal of making 20,000 pesos, in that one weekend alone, the Maserati had earned 234,000 pesos.
Other big time names with even bigger hearts like Iza Calzado helped out, as did Marlon Stockinger, Rovilson Fernandez, Ryan Agoncillo and Juday, that by the end of my two weekend stint, the car had fetched (both figuratively and literally) 538,000 pesos for Alessandra’s operation. It also captured the hearts of thousands of people who in one way or another, helped us raise 200,000 pesos during a charity auction and benefit concert last Sunday where Basti Artadi of Wolfgang, Louis Ramirez from Overdrive, Monty from Mayonaise, Joyce Pring, and Champ all performed.
One of those brilliant ideas came from fellowing motoring scribe and Editor in Chief of AUTOCAR magazine, Ira Panganiban, when he asked Toyota Motors Philippines (TMP) if he can auction off sticker space on his VIOS Cup car, which he will use to compete with alongside Rhian this coming Saturday. Amazingly, Toyota agreed. So long as it was not a competing brand, of course. Not that anything really competes with Toyota. Hence the one make race.
And just like that, in a few days of mentioning it we raised almost 100,000 pesos from five sponsors: Lifeline Rescue, Gadgets in Style, Hola Magazine, Autodeal.com.ph and Red Rock Travel. Then we ran into a pleasant problem; we run out of space to sell. This where Rhian comes to the rescue.
Rhian asked TMP if she could offer up space on her car for donations that would go straight to Alessandra’s operation. As she is a lot easier on the eye than my buddy Ira, TMP said yes faster than an LFA can hit a hundred. Plus Rhian runs all season. But this creates another beautiful problem. As we only have 8 spots to fill, you’ll have to be quicker than Toyota if you want your brand to ride on board with the hottest thing on four wheels.
But good causes aside, the VIOS Cup promises to be the country’s most exciting racing series as there are some deeply rooted rivalries and old scores to settle among the competing dealerships who have ended up fighting over top drivers to represent them. The tension has already been brewing in the garages and wagers placed on who will be the first VIOS Cup winner this weekend.
Best part is that it is free to anyone who would like to go and watch, plus I have ten VIP tickets to anyone who wants to watch Rhian race to save a little girl with a broken heart. But I’m charging sponsors double if she beats Ira.
