Michelin's Grand Prix Sees Cruthlow on Top Down Under

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Michelin saw the momentous occasion of the first-ever Michelin® Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix marked with more significant events at Phillip Island today as Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) powered to his second MotoGP™ victory and became the first British rider to win a motorcycle Grand Prix on Australian soil.

Starting from second on the grid Crutchlow chose the hard-front MICHELIN Power Slick - paired with a medium rear - and the Honda man made a steady start as he put heat in the hard front tyre. Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) made the holeshot from the line, before he was passed by newly-crowned champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), Crutchlow crossed the line in fourth at the end of the first lap, as Marquez set about building a lead. The British rider then moved into contention as he chased down and passed the riders in front of him, cutting into the leader’s advantage and setting the fastest lap of the race in the process. Marquez had made the same tyre choice as Crutchlow, choosing the hard front and medium rear, but the Spaniard made a mistake on lap-10 and braked too late, causing him to hit the white line and crash. Crutchlow was now in the perfect place to take the lead and push at the front to strengthen his position, he did this and took the victory after the 27-lap race by a commanding four-seconds, taking the position of First Independant Rider at the same time and strengthening his overall lead at the top of that championship.

Following two days of awful weather that gave heavy rain and gale force winds, causing one of the free practice sessions to be cancelled, it was a relief for all to see blue skies and sunshine on race-day. With so little dry weather practice all riders had to make their tyre choices with the data from this morning’s warm-up. This resulted in all choosing the medium option rear tyre and the majority going with the asymmetric soft front, the exceptions being Crutchlow, Marquez, Maverick Viñales (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR), Aleix Espargaro (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR) and Jack Miller (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) who all opted for the hard asymmetric front. Joining Crutchlow on the next step of the Michelin podium was Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), the Italian started from 15th on the grid and fought his way through to second after an exciting battle with several riders. Viñales had an equally exciting race as he made his way from 13th at the start to take a hard-fought final podium place, with Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) fourth, giving a quartet of different manufacturers in the top-four. Early leader Espargaro came home in fifth, with Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) sixth. An intense battle filled the remaining top-ten positions as Scott Redding (Octo Pramac Yakhnich) steered his Ducati to seventh, followed by Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) in eighth. Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Yakhnich) ninth and home favourite Miller taking tenth.

Michelin will now leave Phillip Island - the site of the first MotoGP race that it has been title sponsor at - and head to Malaysia for the 17th and penultimate round of the championship, due to be held on Sunday 30th October at the impressive Sepang International Circuit. 

Uncoordinated Demolition Led to Traffic Chaos at NAIA T3

Wazzup Pilipinas!
 

Heavy traffic congestion experienced by passengers of NAIA Terminal 3 last Friday, 28 October 2016, was due to the demolition of the existing Skyway ramp of NAIA-Ex, without due coordination with the Inter-agency Council on Traffic (I-ACT). It was bad timing especially that it was a long weekend and people àre trooping to the provinces for the Undas to honor their dead love ones.

As soon as it has come to the attention of DOTr Secretary Tugade, he directed the IACT to call the attention of SOMCO/Skyway management and asked to immediately suspend the works in the ramp which was causing congestion due to the influx of airline passengers in NAIA.

Thus, DMCI, their contractor, immediately stopped the demolition works, but one lane has already become unpassable.

Engr. Alec Cruz, head of Tollways operation of Skyway went to the site and verified the situation and checked whether it was possible to open another ramp to alleviate the pressure on the one that they closed.

Manny Bonoan, President of SOMCO/ Skyway, announced later that NAIAX Ramp 1 was temporarily opened @ 1641H to relieve the Terminal 3 and Andrews Ave of traffic congestion. This is an additional access to the elevated section towards Makati and south bound areas like Alabang.

Traffic started to move slowly due to heavy volume of vehicles. Skyway traffic patrollers were also deployed in the Terminal 3 area as far as sales interchange helping the IACT traffic patrollers manage the flow of traffic.

The traffic situation yesterday and today in the Andrews Ave and Sales Bridge area has been light to moderate with the entrance to Terminal 3 as moderate to slow moving.

Ricky Lee Receives IFFM Lifetime Achievement Award in New York

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Veteran screenwriter Ricky Lee was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Scriptwriting by the International Film Festival Manhattan (IFFM) in New York.

Lee personally received the plaque of recognition from festival director Luis Pedron last October 20 during the IFFM awards night held at the Kalayaan Hall of the Philippine Center in New York City.

The award-winning writer also conducted a scriptwriting workshop from October 17 to 19 at the Producers Club Theaters & Bar. He has been holding workshops in the Philippines since 1982, producing hundreds of graduates who are now part of the movie and TV industry. He has mentored several budding writers and he vows to continue to help more of them reach their full writing potential in his upcoming workshops.

Lee has written more than 160 scripts for Filipino films since 1973. Many of these have won awards here and abroad. Among them are Himala, Karnal, Moral, Salome and other films directed by acclaimed Filipino filmmakers, including the late National Artists for Film Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal.


Aside from being a screenwriter, Lee is also a book author, fictionist and playwright. He has written Trip to Quiapo, a scriptwriting manual; Si Tatang at mga Himala ng Ating Panahon, a collection of short stories; Pitik-Bulag Sa Buwan Ng Pebrero, a playbook; the novels Para Kay B (O Kung Paano Dinevastate ng Pag-ibig ang 4 out of 5 sa Atin) and Si Amapola sa 65 na Kabanata; and screenplay books like Brutal/Salome, Moral, Bukas May Pangarap and Jose Rizal. His script for Salome has also been translated into English and published by the University of Wisconsin for its film studies.