THE Manila Times motoring section Fast Times received the Silver Luminary Award at the 25th Henry Ford Awards for excellence in automotive journalism at the Atrium at Enderun, Taguig, on May 5.
Three other publications received recognition for their respective motoring sections.
Fast Times was given the award, solidly establishing its place in the local motoring beat after winning the Best Motoring Section award five times.
It won Best Motoring Section at the Henry Ford Awards in 2011 and 2012 under then-section editor Brian Afuang. The section returned to the top in 2015 and 2016 under Anjo Perez, whose tenure maintained the balance between technical reporting and broader lifestyle coverage.
Perez received the Silver Luminary trophy on behalf of The Manila Times.
Fast Times traces its beginnings to 2003 as a small, once-a-month insert centered on motorsports. The motoring section run separately was then led by Vernon Sarne, who laid its initial editorial foundation at a time when sustained motoring coverage in daily newspapers was still limited.
In 2006, Afuang took over and expanded the section’s scope beyond cars to include motorcycles, a move that set it apart from its peers by adding two-wheelers into the mix as a core subject rather than a side feature.
By 2010, the section had formally adopted the Fast Times name and moved to a weekly, full-color format. Editorial leadership in the succeeding years included Armin Amio, columnist and Le Mans race driver Ben Kritz, whose experience in motorsport added depth to the section’s technical voice, and current deputy motoring editor Conrad Cariño.
In 2018, Dino Ray Directo assumed the editorship and introduced refinements that aligned the section with a changing transport landscape. Coverage widened to include new technologies and evolving patterns in mobility, helping secure another Best Motoring Section win at the Henry Ford Awards in 2019.
Perez returned to lead Fast Times, introducing his own passion for motorsports, specifically rallying and bringing in new material in the evolution of mobility which includes aviation and maritime stores. As the section builds on two decades of continuous development, it now includes a weekly travel story from Joseph Bautista, who calls himself the “Senior Backpacker.” Ira Panganiban writes “From the Dashboard,” a witty and hard-hitting column on issues ranging from personalities to policy. The writing pool includes Issac Atienza, also of GoFlatOut, whose expertise revolves around mostly European cars. Mika Fernandez of IgnitionPH is responsible for most of the coverage of local and international motoring events. John Rey San Diego, himself a race driver, navigates many motorsports stories alongside Perez, who is also an accomplished rally driver.
Rounding up the team is Straight Torque 2.0 columnist Raymond Tribdino, whose piece “When my 87-year-old mother rates the 2025 Mitsubishi Xpander,” was recognized as a finalist in the 25th Henry Ford Awards industry feature category.