Hashimoto joins Toyota Gazoo Racing PH Cup winners’ circle

MANILA: The 2025 Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) Philippine Cup has concluded and saw familiar names dominating the event.

However, a new name joined the motorsport event’s winners’ circle. His name: Masando Hashimoto.

On board the Number 4 Toyota Vios, the 48-year old highly-competitive  president of the Toyota Motor Philippines  finished this year’s racing series at second place, trailing Luis Moreno (who was part of the local contingent for the 2024 Toyota GR Gran Turismo Cup-Asia) and John Rey San Diego (a Vios Cup Autocross Challenge graduate who was recently hailed as Automobile Association Philippines [AAP> Co-Driver of the Year).

It was an eventful competition for the TMP executive as prior to finishing the season-ender, his car went upside down at the second race weekend for the year. Aside from that, he completed opening round at the podium.

In his Instagram post, Hashimoto expressed his gratitude for the support he received at the races.

“Very thankful to the Novice managers, coaches, mechanics, and classmates. This team was amazing. You guys made me faster and stronger.”

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“Unbelievable ending. Thank you for the cheer. Thank you for believing in me. This is a team victory. Super!” he added.

Overall podium finishers

Joining him at the podium following the final race weekend (held last August 9 at the Clark International Speedway) are Russel Cabrera from Toyota Team Cebu-Standard Insurance, Jesse Garcia from Obengers Racing-Toyota Balintawak, and Luis Moreno from the Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippines Novice Team, who all secured championship in their respective classes.

Here are the overall results of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippine Cup 2025:

Novice class
Rank	Name	Team
1	Luis Moreno	Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippines Novice Team
2	Masando Hashimoto	Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippines Novice Team
3	John Rey San Diego	Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippines Novice Team

 

Sporting class
Rank	Name	Team
1	Jesse Garcia	Obengers Racing-Toyota Balintawak
2	Russel Reyes	Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippines
3	Raymond Cudala	R Racing-Toyota Dagupan Group-MADkart

 

Super sporting class
Rank	Name	Team
1	Russel Cabrera	Toyota Team Cebu-Standard Insurance
2	Alain Gabriel Alzona	Toyota General Santos-Motul Infiniteserv Racing
3	Michael Bryan Co	R Racing-Toyota Dagupan Group-MADkart

 

Team championship
Rank	Team
1	Obengers Racing
2	R Racing-Toyota Dagupan Group-MADkart
3	Toyota Team Cebu-Standard Insurance 1

Tamaraw Sprint race exhibition

The final race weekend also paved the way for the one-make-race (OMR) concept circuit race for the next-generation Tamaraw. Those who got behind the wheel of the race-prepped utility vehicle are

• Allan Uy (former Vios Cup champion)
• Daniel Miranda (former Vios Cup champion)
• Estefano Rivera (former Vios Cup champion)
• John Dizon (former Vios Cup champion)
• Aaron Guevara(GR Development Driver)

The concept vehicle logged an average lap time of 2 minutes and 30 seconds — similar to the Vios CVT OMR units used in the Novice Class. What’s more surprising is that it was able to cross the finish line faster than a GR 86 and Vios OMR Legacy Class car during a Drag Race.

“Since the Tamaraw OMR Concept’s debut in Race Weekend 2, we’ve made significant upgrades focused on safety and handling. As the first country to develop an OMR vehicle, it’s challenging and we have a lot of work ahead of us, but so far, we are impressed with the performance of the Tamaraw this weekend,” TMP GR Section Supervisor Juan Carlos Gaon.

“It has been a thrilling year. From the introduction of the Legacy Class during Race Weekend 1 to the unforgettable Race Weekend 2 city street race and sprint race debut of the Tamaraw OMR Concept during Race Weekend 3, we can say the 2025 season is one for the books. We would like to thank all the racers, racing teams, sponsors, media partners, fans, and everyone else who made this racing series possible. Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippines will continue to bring more exciting activities. We hope you look forward to them,” shared TMP Assistant Vice President for Marketing Services Andrew Ryan Ty.

Sanctioned by AAP, the Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippine Cup was conducted in partnership with Petron (official fuel and lubricants partner and GT Radial (official tire partner).

Other event supporters are Seiko, Toyota Financial Services, Tuason Racing School, AVT, 3M, Denso, Vinyl Frog Premier Vehicle Wraps, OMP, ROTA, Autoplus, PIAA, AutoQuix, Bebang Halo-Halo, Sparco, myTOYOTA Wallet and Kinto One.

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