College student gets free trip to Singapore

Singapore GP Ltd Pte, race promoters of the world’s only Formula One night race recently raffled off a pair of lucky round trip airfares, including three room nights plus race tickets to the 2011 Formula1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix. Singapore has successfully hosted the world’s only night race in Grand Prix history and Asia’s only street race on the F1 calendar on public roads in downtown Singapore for three years in a row since the inaugural race in 2008 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. This year’s race weekend will be from 23rd to 25th of September.

Twenty-year-old Enrico Ylanan got the shock of his life when he received word from Inquirer Motoring that he won a trip for two to the 2011 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix happening this weekend.

“Through browsing the Web, I stumbled upon it on Inquirer’s website promoting the raffle. I always had an interest in automobiles and motorsports even at an early age. My father would always bring me to Subic to watch the Philippine Touring Car Championships and other similar events. He also exposed me to other forms of motorsport such as Le Mans, JGTCC, WTCC, and WRC,” said Ylanan when asked how he found out about the race raffle and his background on the world of motorsports.

“I used to collect model cars, but since my adolescent years, I have stopped collecting. I have a keen interest on F1 and was a diehard fan of Ferrari during the earlier seasons. I would usually follow the race through the Internet, but have also been watching it on television as well.”

He shuttles from Biñan, Laguna, to and from home as a college student majoring in Information Systems at De La Salle Canlubang.

William Herrera, VP Marketing of Red Rock Travel, one of the official foreign ticketing agents for the Singapore GP said: “We always have people inquiring about the Singapore GP race but this year, they were also very interested in the line-up of entertainment in store for this weekend’s race as well. SGP has a strong following among the local race fan base.”

With the price of one race ticket, race fans can both enjoy the race and a line-up of multimillion-dollar entertainment with ticket prices that start for as low as S$38 for a Zone 4 Friday Walkabout pass while a three-day Premier Walkabout ticket averaging at S$149 per day offers access to all zones and over 103 stage and roving performances within the race circuit park.

A plethora of international celebrities are lined up for this year’s race, starting with two-time Grammy winning rock band Linkin Park for a one-night-only performance featuring hits from their “A Thousand Suns” album at the Padang main stage on race day Sunday.

Other headliners include Shaggy of the “Mr Boombastic” fame and Rick Astley who will give fans a taste of the ’80s with hits like “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “Together Forever.” Both performances will be at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre (Zone 4-Saturday) and Village Stage (Zone 1-Sunday). Filipino star Charice will be there to perform at the Padang Stage in Zone 4 on Friday while she will be in the Village Stage on Zone 1 on Saturday.