Will Honda PH & the Supra GTR150 win a Philippine Championship in 2022?

It is often said that companies use racing to communicate the quality and performance of their products.  Racing is a highly challenging endeavor that requires many factors to come together in harmony in order to arrive at a race win and eventually a championship. The pre-race preparation, the racebike, the team, the rider, the track conditions, the weather and even luck have to be perfectly aligned and synchronized and any deficiency in any area will mean the difference between victory or defeat. Honda as brand for many decades, has definitely proven its racing effectiveness by pouring top engineering and design talents as well as its manufacturing acumen to its many racing programs that eventually resulted in successes on the global level wherever they race like in the FIM MotoGP, FIM Motocross,  FIA Formula 1, Indycar and even in the FIM Asia Road Racing Championships (ARRC) and Malaysian Cub Prix.

Honda Philippines has been racing in the Philippine road racing scene for almost 20 years now in different forms and capacities with different teams and with different organizers and race series. For many years, they have been successfull in discovering and starting the careers of many racers thru their Honda One Make races since 2004 using their Wave, Wave Dash, Beat scooter, CBR150 backbone (MotoIR and Dream Cup) and even with the XRM.

Before 2022, they have also raced competitvely in multi-brand underbone, scooter and  backbone road race competitions at the national level and most importanty at the prestigious and coveted annual IRGP. Honda has won a number of podium and even race wins with the Beat, CBR150, Wave and the RS150 in various top level races. Honda has also achieved IRGP Championship wins and IRGP Manufacturer Awards.

In late 2019, Honda released its latest underbone, the Honda Supra GTR150. The plan was for it to takeover the RS150 as the basis for its underbone racing program. Unfortunately, the 2020 season did not happen while the abbreviated 2021 season started late. Furtermore, Honda Philippines had to find a new team to support its 2019 Honda Dream Cup winner Jakob Sablaya.

With tuning from Project M and support from Triumph JT, Honda Ph and Sablaya managed to form a team late in 2021 in time for the IRGP. Because development of the Supra GTR150 was very limited from its launch date to be competitive in the all out open modification class, the team decided to focus in the USRA Underbone Sealed category where bikes from all brands compete with limited modifications or nearly stock conditions. They also entered the CBR150 in the Sealed MotoIR2 class. The Alpinestars IRGPXIV was a success for the new team as Sablaya finished on the podium in MotoIR2 and a fine 4th place in the Sealed Underbone.

For the 2022 Season, the team started both in the MotoIR2 and Underbone Sealed categories of the Motul Super Series Nationwide Championships and the MotoIR Championships, Philippine national races sanctioned by NAMSSA, the FIM National Federation, and its affiliate USRA.

After 4 races from April to June, the Honda Ph team competed in Tarlac, Pampanga and Cavite where Sablaya and Honda are always competitve and running at the front no matter the circuit.

Also, despite his intermediate rider status, Jakob has beeen engaging with top expert riders in the GP class, most importantly with “Sealed Engine Maestro” EJ Sobretodo of Team Kixx Angkas VMAN. The two have been fighting for victory in both series and in both classes.

Sobretodo has been getting the top podium in the first events until the last race at the Cavite GP where Honda and Sablaya claimed their first ever national Pole Position and Super Series win. Project M’s steady tuning development and Jakob’s riding finally matching the pace of the multi IRGP Champion Sobretodo especially on the short tight circuits like the Cavite IR Speedrome in Silang.

Honda and Sablaya actually claimed their first national MotoIR race a month before in Porac Pampanga International Circuit when he won the MotoIR UB Open class after Sobretodo crashed.  But that came only as a bonus as the Sealed engine crown  is their goal.

At the Cavite GP Sobretodo again crashed in the Super Underbone Open GP race while Sablaya finished a strong third behind Kerwin Chang and Garry Cañeda. This gave Sablaya also the lead in the championship in that series.

So, heading to the Motul Cebu GP on July 17 and the Denoo GP MotoIR on July 24 in Tarlac, Honda, the GTR150 and Sablaya find themselves leading championships in three (3) underbone classes. An impressive achievement for a team that is less than a month old!

With Cebu races getting 1.5 points multiplier for visiting riders like Sablaya, and the fact that the short Cebu Kart Zone circuit does not require top end power, Sablaya has a chance to extend his lead both in the Sealed and Open ubone classes.

If things continue to work their way, we might see the Honda Supra GTR and Jakob Sablaya claim their first national championahips by the end of 2022!

Pray hard Honda fans!

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