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| Issue: September 2006 |
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| Mga Balita September 2006 |
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LAP 1: Ladies
First! Fasten
your seatbelt! If
there is one race-car driver to watch out for, that would be HER. The first
Filipina to land in the venerated Asian Formula 3, 24-year-old Gabrielle dela
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By: The Joint Forces of the e-Botak Team As foretold by Leah Katigbak |
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In the right
sense of the word, yes, e-BOTAK is Head over Heels with the rise and race of
Gaby dela |
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LAP 2: 101%
Sporty Gaby
is not just the racer. She’s an all-around sports person. “I more or less ventured
into a lot of sports. I started with basketball, ‘yan puro mga BOTAK uniform namin… When
I was younger I went into varsity, though first love ko soccer… ” She
also played table tennis in high school. In college, since she already started
racing, the most she did was billiards. Now, when not busy with racing, she finds time to play and enjoy ultimate (Frisbee), adventure race and mostly flag football. She loves surfing too.
But
wait, Gaby is not just into the physical sports, as she really got hooked up on
chess too! This only proves that she has the
attributes to do well both in the physical and mental sports. “There’s
a lot of mental in racing… You also have to exercise your brain and I get that a
lot with flag football. Coz in flag football you have to be accurate eh. I’m the quarter back. When you’re
the quarter back, you make the plays, you’re given a certain amount of time… As
soon as it’s a broken play, you have to know what to do. You have to know where
your receivers are.” |
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LAP 3: Born
Artist She
was born with a roster of talents. You would surely want to hear her play the
violin. When she was younger she tried to play a lot of instruments like the
piano, drums and even self-studied the harmonica. She’s into painting as well,
with impressionism in her line. Also, though she hasn’t written for quite
sometime, still she’s a writer. “I used to have a
journal with me. I used to write a lot of poetry.” |
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LAP 4: Girl
Power Now
that Gaby is showing the world that females can rise on the race track, she has
muddled through the accompanying pros and cons of fame. “With
all attention in terms of media, it comes with the good and bad. Good in a way
it’s a bit easier to get sponsors like guys can’t exactly go to a feminine wash,
and say ‘hey can u sponsor me’ or
something like that. But
if you look at the other side, there’s always this negative notion when you get
into this sport wherein you have to prove yourself. Especially I was one of the
firsts who really got into motor sports racing here in the
Now I don’t really think of it --- being a girl or a guy. It’s not a gender thing anymore for me.
Gaby
sees the big potential of women in racing. She believes that certain nuance
between men and women should not hinder one’s desire to race. Here are some of
her inspiring words… “The
only advantage I could see with guys compared to women, men they have more mass,
they’re stronger. But it does not mean that you have to be unusually,
extra-ordinarily strong in order to race. You’re not in weight lifting. With
dedication and a lot of training, you will get the muscles you need.
And
there are also some advantages with women. Women have a better peripheral vision
than men. Di ba? I think it’s 20
percent better… Like yung sa girls, alam
mo kahit nand’yan na sa likod eh, nand’yan na s’ya. We can see the details
at the side… Guys can’t really do that. It really depends on perspective. In terms of smoothness, some women have it more than men. Women are softer, more graceful and that’s a big advantage in racing. Men have the more push on speed, the adrenalin.
I’m talking about this generally. There are always a lot of
exceptions in that… There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages. It really
boils down to how much you want it.” |
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LAP 5: Total
Knock-out One will even admire Gaby for her passion in her sports and whatever she does. She’s a total knock-out in her own persona and craft.
“There
will always be hurdles along the way. Intensity (in motor sports race) is still
there. I think it’s even growing as time progresses. My craving to want to get
to where I wanna go… my goal, its there eh.” Discipline and determination are the topmost characteristics she has developed out of racing. “I
know that I have a lot more drive now. If I really want something, I’m gonna
stick to it.” When
asked on the best thing about racing… “Having
passion. I’m
a very passionate person, so to speak, in whatever I do… Like in business,
whatever I get into, it’s really by heart. Racing has taught me to really stick
to something. You know it really has a lot of rewards to really try and try even
if the world conspires against you. Ohhh… It just makes winning or getting to
your goal much sweeter when it happens.”
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LAP 6: Proud Filipina
Athlete Gaby
thinks highly of the Filipino athletes all over the world.
“It’s
nice knowing that there are so much Filipino athletes who have excelled in
different parts of the world. I just like to say it’s an honor to have people
like them…. I’m eventually… hopefully…. well I am in a way doing that also…
Racing abroad and representing the country is a very big thing for
me.” As an
athlete, where exactly is her goal heading to? “I
can’t really give you an exact series that I want to get into but what I’m
definitely sure is that by the end of these, I want to be a well respected racer
internationally. I obviously wanna be successful in the field. I really want to
race in the |
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LAP 7: The Most Promising Endorser:
Power, Beauty and Brains Before the buzz-maker advertisement for a top hair conditioner brand, which paved way for more attention on her, Gaby already has a long list of sponsors. With no bias involved, we just believe that Gaby will make it even bigger in the ad world. She simply got it all. She’s a power hit in the track and in all her sports. She’s a certified head turner with intrinsic beauty inside and out. And she’s got the brains too, innately smart.
“There
are a lot obviously that helped me out. If not I would not have really been able
to race Asian Formula 3… though a lot more could help. I’m
just stubborn, actually a lot of people have already been convincing me to stop,
‘its hard, there’s no future,’
especially coming from a country that is not exactly economically stable… It’s
hard to get the back up. You have to really look for sponsors to go on to the
next.”  |
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