Gaby dela Merced UPOU student

Gaby dela Merced UPOU student:

This lady racer is driven to beat the odds Pardon her initial ignorance of basic automobile facts.

While her precocity has surprised many, Formula 3 driver Gaby dela Merced admits she jumped into racing quite clueless.

"If you asked me then which one was the Toyota, Hyundai ro Honda emblem-just to ditinsguish them-I wouldn't know. I had no idea. My fascination for cars grew only after I got into racing," she confesses.

As it turned out, local racing cliques rarely come across someone like Dela Merced.

"When I started off, it wasn't really because of an interest in cars. Usually you'd hear, 'I'm a gear-head, I like cars, I like the engines, that's why I ended up racing,'" she explains. "I was never born into a racing community. I didn't really know what I was talking about. I kust kept saying, 'I want to race, I want to race!' I wanted to do that thing that I see on TV, and have fun."

Hyperactive

Like a perpetually hyperactive two-year-old, Dela Merced has tried innumerable sports, from soccer to basketball and martial artis. So it came as no surprise to her parents-bsunessman Norberto Jr. and former model Genevieve Baltao-when they learned that careening cars totally thrilled their teenage daughter.

"When I was in second year high school, I started bugging my parents. And they'd always say they'd get me a suit and a helmet when they went to the States," recalls Dela Merced.

"May pagka-ADHD (attention deficit huperactivity disorder) ako noon," she adds, laughing. "Months would pass, I'd forget because I was into a lot of other sports also. Then a year after, I'd remember, 'Hey, where's that suit?' Then I'd bug them again, and they'd say, 'Next year.'"

Interestingly, it wasn't even a real race car that fuelled her excitement-just a pixelated version of it.

"I wanted to feel the G-force, I watned to feel the speed because of vide games. That's how it all began. I grew up with brothers, and they were really hooked on games, any type of video games. So I first got hooked on racing video games and it grew form there."

By the time Dela Merced was 17, her Formula fixation hadn't waned. SO her father figured out how to sign her up in a P{orche roadshow clinic.

"One of my father's friends joined the roadshow, but decided to back out at the last minute. Then he asked y father if he wanted to join it. The first person he thought of was me, so that I could finally get this thing off my mind, to just try it and stop bugging him about it."

Dela Merced's driving debut qwas surprisingly good enough to earn her the Best Driving Style award. Yet, she dmismisses, "It was nothing really serious. It wasn't a race, it was just a roadshow."

The green light

Still, the stint convinced Dela Merced's father that there was actually some talent beneath her relentlessly curious mind. And the young, pretty driver knew she had gotten the green light when her father gave her a beat-up 1982 Toyota Starlet as a present for her 18th birthday.

"It was really like a racing car already. It just had one seat, there was no insulation. Everything was bare. It didn't even have windows anymore. But I fell in love with it. Myf reinds were like, 'Yeah, it's nice,' but they wouldn't come within 10 feet of it, baka ma-tetanus sila," she says with a giggle.

In the next few months, Dela Merced geared up for her first slalom race. It was an off-beat route, since most racers start with karting competitions. Yet she somehow found slalom perfect for a beginner like her.

"With other types of racing, you're only slower than the person in front. The fastest racer is always the person in front. Here, you're not up against anyone else. You're competing against yourself. Against time. So it's like starting on an equal plane," she explains.

As much as the budding racer enjoyed stepping on the gas, it took some time before real ambition kicked in.

"When I got into it, my heart was there, but I still wasn't that committed," admits Dela Merced. "Races were held every Sunday, but I'd still go out on a Saturday night and sometimes be at the race with a hangover. Driving with a hangover, that's the worst thing."

Luckily, Dela Merced flushed the early demons out of her system. "That's when I realized that if I really wanted to win, I have to be serious about it. Eventually that's what I did. I started sleeping early. Racing taught me a lot of discipline."

Collective wins

In 2000, Dela Merced bagged class wins in the Philippine Slalom Championship. The following year, she ruled the ladies' class of the same event.

Shifting gears, Dela Merced tried circuit racing in "Rung What You Brung," a kind of free-for-all race where you can drive whatever vehicle you want.

"You can use any type of car, and you go around the track three times. It's a solo thing, and you're judged by your time," she explains. "That's when I got the feeling that this is what I wanted to get into, circuit racing."

Dela Merced began to collect class wins and runner-up finishes in the National Touring Car Series for a couple more years. Although she impressed her family members and friends with her passion, none of them knew how hooked she was until the tryouts for the Formula BMW scholarship came along in 2004.

"I was just racing locally then. What interested me with BMW was the discipline. I have a friend who got into it a year before. He said the training was rigorous, it will really prepare you mentally. They'll teach you everything."

But even as Dela Merced had the luxury of living in a comfortable universe, her father still set financial limits for what he still considered her juvenile fascination.

"That was the year when my father told me that I already had enough back-up in the Philippines, and he wont' be supporting me anymore," she recounts. "A big amount was needed just to try out. I needed to find sponsors. I couldn't find anyone to support me, because it was just a tryout."

Whatever it took

Driven to chase down her first international venture, the 23-year-old Dela Merced felt she could pull it off on her own.

"I decided to do it, whatever it took. That's when I dipped into my life savings. I sold my bike, and my father got mad at me. He had been hoping it would just be a hobby. He was like, 'You're crazy, Gab!' I was even supposed to sell my car. My father stopped talking to me. A lot of people were very sceptical, because for one, I'm female. Then I'm already a bit old, and I don't have the money," she says.

The scepticism followed her to the Formula BMW tryouts in Malaysia. "As soon as I got there, people were already negative. They told me, 'You've never gone karting, you'll have a hard time,'" she recalls.

Impressively, Dela Merced was one of the four drivers chosen after several demanding tests. As the first Asian female scholar, she was, needless to say, ecstatic. But reality hit her quite fast.

"BMW will train you and do everything, but you do have to look for sponsors in your own country," she explains. "When I got back, my father talked to me and said, 'You're happy now, you can get back to what you're doing.' And I was like, 'By the way, I'm going to accept the scholarship.' He got mad again and asked me, 'What happens if you can't pay? They're going to run after me, and even I don't have the money for that.' I thought we'd find a way. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to race the whole season. But it was nice, it was a great experience." Dela Merced was in Malaysia for two months in 2004 to learn the ropes of racing from the pros.

Self-promotion

Hoping to keep her Formula dreams on track, Dela Merced had to master the art of self-promotion. With her solid credentials, she knew she had something going for her. Still, she found racing in the concrete jungle a lot tougher.

"The money you need for a Formula race is 10 times the amount of money you'll need in a car race," she laments. "What's difficult is not the racing itself. It's after the race. You have to run around, chase sponsors. You're practically selling yourself. But when you get the money, it's all worth it."

Dela Merced got everything down pat this year when she made the jump to Formula 3, an important step for drivers to reach Formula 1, the pinnacle of racing. "I'm guaranteed to compete in all the races this year," she says happily.

As calculated as her sharp turns on the race course was Dela Merced's efforts to make herself more visible and high-profile in order to gather support. When Cream Silk asked her to be part of its "Pink Power" ads-a slick campaign on women excelling in male-dominated fields-she readily agreed. All for her racing, of course. "That Cream Silk ad, it's what's going to pay for my last race!" she says.

Still getting the jitters

On the home front, Dela Merced has also smoothened things out with her parents.

"They're now very supportive," she happily notes. "They watch my races. My mother goes with me in my international races. She's calmed down a lot. She's learned to trust the safety equipment that's there."

Yet Dela Merced herself still gets the jitters, even if she's already on her sixth year of racing.

"No other sport has made me feel like my heart wanted to jump out of my body," she admits. "It's different from any sport I've tried. It's ironic that, for something that's so fast, quick and precise, you must actually have patience and discipline. You'd think you have to be rugged and aggressive. But it's all about being calm."

Right now, Dela Merced continues to function like a well-oiled machine. Aside form racing, she has pursued other activities like flag football, ultimate Frisbee and adventure racing. She's also back in school at the UP Open University. "I had trouble balancing my racing and studies back then," she explains.

It has been a long road, indeed, for someone who started out not being able to tell a fender from a hood.

"Racing is one of the most gratifying things," Dela Merced says. "I've always been passionate about what I do. And that's how you should live life, no matter how ridiculous things seem. It's not about showing the world, but showing yourself that this is what you want, this is where you want to go, and that you can find ways to get there."

Article by Jasmine W. Payo, reprinted from the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, 09/03/06

Gaby dela Merced