Last October, the country's best off-road drivers were met with the toughest race they had ever experienced: a four-day long expedition where they relied on nothing but their vehicles and their skills.
Through 285 kilometers of mud, gravel, and high waters, the racers braved nature's challenges to claim their sweet prize and an adventure like no other.
Mother Nature is a formidable opponent in the realm of off-road racing. In the face of constantly changing terrain, drivers are left with two choices: to yield and turn back, or risk their rig in an effort to get to the finish line.
To prepare for this race, Competition Director JR Bartolome drove through the race trail about twelve times over the course of six months — inspecting every turn of the road for safety and checking for emergency routes with engineers from General Nakar, Quezon. However, he didn't expect nature to drastically change their plans at the last minute.
On these off-road trails, rain and other weather conditions can transform the landscape in a matter of minutes. The paths that JR had planned for this competition had been molded by Typhoon Karding's path just a couple of weeks before the original race day and suspended the expedition for two weeks. Only after some additional recon and scouting checks did the race push through. And even then, nature still had some tricks up its sleeve.
"Parang pinaglaruan kami ng nature!" JR laughed, explaining how heavy rains threatened their carefully crafted plans. Come competition day, rotating spells of rain and sunshine challenged the thirty teams of racers who coveted the grand prize.
In cooperation with Motolite, we sent out a team of photographers to capture the thrill and excitement that the nation’s best racers experienced at the Petron Philippine Overland Expedition.
October 23 was one for the records for off-road racers here in the Philippines: The first-ever Petron Philippine Overland Expedition finally concluded the grueling 285-kilometer-long challenge across one of the country’s most inhospitable trail strips.
After four days of extreme mud, gravel, and river crossings through the stretch of Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Aurora, and Quezon Province, it was Team Ironman that emerged as the champion among the 25 competing groups. With a record of 2 hours, 17 minutes, and 29 seconds, Team Ironman took home the grand prize of Php 500,000. Right on their trail was Team La Union 1 in second and Team Giba 1 in third, winning Php 200,000 and Php 100,000 respectively.
Still, every participant had plenty to take home as the event’s sponsors provided the racers with equipment to aid them on their journey. Motolite equipped the racing teams with state-of-the-art Excel EFB Batteries, which Clode Torres, one of the race marshals, says, gave him “the power needed for continuous winching to get past deep water crossings and mud pits."
The journey to the finish line was definitely a rough but rewarding one for all the teams. Photographer Dino Dimar was dispatched to the expedition to witness the action through his lens. Take a read of his notes on the field:
It was pitch black when we arrived at the flag off-site in Umiray. We arrived at 4:30 AM and the first team of eighty 4×4 vehicles had already been released.
For safety purposes, the car teams started the race in batches, so while the first set of racers braved the river crossing, other teams waiting looked on while having a couple of beers. Off to the side, there were also teams checking their engines one last time to prepare for the rough ride to come.
Once the cars head out into the water, members of each team would hop out of their cars to guide their main driver through the river. In a way, the teams observing had a slight advantage, as they could see early on which areas of the river were deep and which ones were safer to cross.
The original plan for the race marshals was to leave one by one in succession. But when it started drizzling, they decided to leave altogether for fear of the rain getting too strong and preventing them from moving forward; the muddier it got, the harder it would be for the vehicles to pass. The terrain of General Nakar is harsh enough as it is on a sunny day, but the rain turned the trail into something even more unfriendly for the vehicles. The solid ground became mud with the presence of moisture, and it threatened to swallow up anything that dared to tread its path.
Along the way, we encountered a rescue team of medics on foot and, ironically, needed rescue because the vehicle that carried their equipment had gotten stuck in the mud.
Nearing 6 PM, we had to stop and set up camp because it was getting dark soon and more worryingly, our vehicle had caught onto something and was damaged. With low visibility, it would be hard to fix it up.
When morning came, we assessed the extent of the vehicle’s damages. Technical men from Pampanga helped fix up the car — turns out, the mud was so deep that it had damaged some of the parts on the underside.
At 10:24 AM, I was riding a vehicle with General Nakar Mayor Esee Ruzol. And when we arrived at the beachside at 2:25 PM, we were hurrying to set up camp because it would soon get dark again. At this point, the teams were thinking of not pushing through with the race.
By 12:47 PM at kilometer 12, the Mayor decided to set up camp. It was drizzling already and if it continued to rain, there would be a high chance of a landslide or a flash flood considering our location.
The marshals of the race hoped to somehow relay to racers from the second batch of competitors to not continue the race because of this — but since there was no phone signal, it could not be done.
My assistant and I backtracked and paid a boatman to take us back to the start of the race to catch up to the teams of Batch 2. When we returned to the starting area, we saw that the organizing team had brought a backhoe to help level the area. It was also responsible for towing some rigs that didn’t make it through the mud and had been stuck for hours.
Exhausting was an understatement to describe the expedition, but this was also what the racers had come for: the challenges and camaraderie that come with a difficult trail, red from the coat of mud. Competition Director JR Bartolome, and the lead marshal of the expedition, had navigated the treacherous mud and waters like it was nothing. He had been off-road driving since he was 16 and just like the other veterans, had enjoyed every part of the bumpy ride.
In the end, we weren’t able to finish the race. My assistant and I camped out one last time on our final night, and left the trail at 8 AM to return to San Fernando, Pampanga.
Since our photographers could only go so far, GRID spoke to Bomvet Santos, co-driver of the 1st Placer Team Ironman to piece together the final two days of the Overland Expedition.
Bomvet Santos said that while they were the fourth team to be dispatched at the Umiray flag-off site, they still managed to climb their way to the front of the race through sheer stubbornness and strategy. It was the first river crossing that usually discouraged racers to keep on going: the heavy rains had probably caused the waters to run higher than usual. Seeing the photos from the event, one could clearly see that each vehicle out there was almost completely submerged — it was a wonder that anyone even made it through.
To understand how Bomvet carried his team through the tough dips and turns of the race, it’s important to know that he’s been steeped in these extreme sports since he was eighteen years old. From motocross racing to off-road driving, at 44, he’s collected a few accolades that validate his expertise. So when asked about the difficulty of this year’s race, he simply said — “On a scale of 1-10, I think this one is a 3.”
This confident and lighthearted approach to the expedition is what brought him and his team to the top. Instead of blindly gunning to be in the lead, he prioritized keeping his team’s spirits up and helping other racers finish the trail too. Sure, he had the ambition to come out on top, but he also didn’t want to take the race too seriously at the expense of his team’s morale. On the final days, he even remembers bringing out a welding kit to help out other teams whose rigs had broken their levers, pulleys, and arms.
On the last 20 kilometers of the trip, one of their cars broke down. The propeller was pulled out from the vehicle and the shock absorber gave up on them just as they camped out on the third night. They didn’t know if they were going to make it but they trudged on, broken car in tow. Next thing they knew, they crossed the finish line and were hailed as Champions of the first-ever Philippine Overland Expedition.
With this win, they accomplished a feat that no other off-road driver had done before. Bomvet wants to keep on racing, he said. Next time, he hopes to represent a sponsor — the costs of overlanding are not cheap, but he knows his skills can bring out the best in any vehicle and equipment. This year, he’s happy with the assistance from Motolite, who has given support for the racers with their new batteries.
Over several grueling days, the off-road enthusiasts at the Petron Overland Expedition had seen and experienced everything — from rain, to river, and mud.
Here are glimpses of their excursion through the perilous Dingalan Trail:
The off-road adventure is not for the faint-hearted. Luckily, you can experience the excitement of the trail and the tenacity of the country's best racers through the lens of a photographer.
