Yamaha asks Pinoys to ‘Race Your Flag’ at the Philippine Sports Expo

For over a decade, Yamaha Motor Philippines has been a strong supporter of Philippine motorsports, sponsoring athletes and teams in both local and foreign events. But even with their massive talent and international success, Pinoy riders still don’t get the amount of attention that athletes in other sports get.

And yes, riders are indeed athletes. While anyone, with enough practice, can ride a motorbike, these guys do it on an entirely different degree. They need quick reflexes to react near-instantaneously to obstacles on the track—as simulated by the reaction game at Yamaha’s show booth. Beyond that, there’s a level of fitness the riders have to maintain, and that means exercise, training, and a strict diet. As Asia Road Racing Championship rider Gian Carlo Mauricio relates: food is a sweet luxury after a hard race!

Of course, riders need more than food to compete. This is where Yamaha comes in. Their support for local racers goes beyond simple sponsorship; Yamaha Motor Philippines funds and runs teams in various racing disciplines, in order to foster Filipino talent.

Case in point: McKinley Kyle ‘Wonderboy’ Paz is the first Filipino FIM Asia Road Racing Champion, and is also the first to graduate to the European circuit, where he has been competing in the FIM Moto2 Junior GP Championship—feeder series for MotoGP—for the past two years.

Kyle couldn’t make it to the Philippine Sports Expo due to racing commitments for the Yamaha Philippines Style Bike Racing Team at the famous Algarve Circuit in Portimao. Still, he managed to connect via video call to talk to the crowd about the experience and the difficulties of adapting to race in a totally new venue. 

Gian and teammate April King ‘Rocket Boy’ Mascardo, on the other hand, are still racing in the ARRC Underbone 150 Championship. Teammates under the banner of UMA Racing MMR Yamaha Philippines Team, the two talked about how hard it is to race on foreign tracks against more familiar riders. Mascardo related the determination required to get back in the saddle after a nasty spill. Third in last year’s championship, he has had a few falls this season, including one that sidelined him for Round 3 of the 2023 season. He recalled how the first thing he looked for after every race was a church, to give thanks for his health and his continued safety.

Also in the ARRC is J.E. ‘The Hitman’ Inguito, who races for 4S1M EVO YAMAHA Racing Team alongside Indonesian Gupita Kresna Wardhan. He’s been having a great season, after clinching a win in Round 3 to make him the highest ranked Pinoy in the field. A true sneakerhead, Inguito likes to go shoe hunting after each race to blow off steam.

At the end of the press conference, Yamaha Motor Philippines renewed its commitment to Filipino motorsports. With our riders spending half their lives at the tracks—indeed, Kyle Paz often doesn’t get to come back home during the racing season. Also, they aren’t often as visible as other athletes, which is why Yamaha is pushing to put them on stage at the Philippine Sports Expo. Seems only fair that the same benefits and privileges granted to other athletes extend towards riders carrying our flag on the global stage!

Yamaha envisions a time when all the best local racers will be riding Yamahas on a bigger stage; perhaps sooner than we might think. For more information on Yamaha’s ‘Race Your Flag’ program, check out the official Yamaha Motor Philippines website or drop a like and subscribe on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter.