The Philippine motorsports community was dealt a cruel blow on Wednesday when gentleman racer and legend Jose “Pocholo” Ramirez succumbed to urinary bladder cancer after being diagnosed with the disease in 2006.
Ramirez, 76, peacefully surrendered to the Big C at 1:10 in the morning in his residence in Valle Verde, where his loved ones were at his bedside to the end.
He will always be remembered for being the fastest driver in many circuit races here and abroad. But – as he noted a few months ago when he was in a talking mood – “I got national attention for driving slow!” Pocholo was referring to his record 1,400 kms-on-one-full-tank drive for Petron a few years ago which was used in newspaper, television and billboard advertisements around the country.
That kind of wit you get when Pocholo is with you in a motoring event, party or at the races. He was a gentleman of the Old World – courteous, and charming. In conversation, he was never in a hurry, waiting for others to finish their stories. At the race track – even at the proving grounds of the car manufacturers in Japan, he was fast, fast, fast! (Even while watching his grandson Andre racing, Pocholo was the fastest to applaud!)
Pocholo’s “dream-come-true” is the Subic International Raceway which he established 14 years ago.
“I found an old airstrip which looked like a good stretch for a racetrack, so I leased it, first for three months, then six, then a year,” he told me in that cool December evening when he was in his talking mood. Today, the Subic Raceway is “home” to hundreds of race drivers who got trained there under his sons who conducted racing workshops. The Subic racetrack now hosts international and local racing events.
Truly, Ramirez has served as an inspiration to both aspiring enthusiasts and established stars—a fact validated by the lifetime achievement awards given to him by the Automobile Association of the Philippines—the country’s highest governing body for motorsports—and the Car Awards Group Inc. in 2006 and 2008, respectively.
With Ramirez’s passing, another chapter in Philippine motor racing history has come to a close. All of us who were his brothers in the world of speed will sorely miss him.
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