Arsenio Laurel
Arsenio "Dodjie" Hidalgo Laurel was a champion race car driver from the Philippines. He was the first two-time winner of the Macau Grand Prix, winning it consecutively in 1962 and 1963. He was killed in an accident at the 1967 Macau Grand Prix.
Early life
Born on December 14, 1931, Laurel was a scion of a prominent political family in the Philippines. He was the youngest of nine children. His father was José P. Laurel, the President of the Philippines during the Japanese occupation, while several of his brothers would eventually serve the country as Vice President, House Speaker, senator and ambassador.On March 22, 1945, at the age of 13, Laurel joined his family and officials such as former Speaker of the National Assembly Benigno Aquino Sr., former Minister of Education Camilo Osias and his wife, and General Mateo Capinpin in evacuating from Baguio and began a long and perilous overland journey to Tuguegarao, where a Japanese navy plane would fly the group to Japan via Formosa and Shanghai, China. On September 15, days after Japan formally surrendered to the United States, his father, his older brother Jose III, and Aquino Sr. were arrested by a group of Americans headed by a Colonel Turner for collaborating with Imperial Japan and were imprisoned in Japan. He later joined the rest of the Laurel family in flying back to Manila on November 2.
He obtained a Master's Degree in Law at Yale University.
Racing career
Laurel was a pioneer in the development of Philippine motorsport. He was among the first champion racers in the early years of organized auto racing in the Philippines, driving his 1954 Studebaker on the oval of the Santa Ana Hippodrome in Makati, Rizal when the horses were not running. He also excelled in karting and drag racing, organizing the earliest drag races at an abandoned Nielson Airport runway which is now Paseo de Roxas in Makati. He was also a licensed helicopter pilot. In the mid-1960s, he was also known to TV viewers as the first host of Motoring News.His success in the Asian racing scene in the 1960s earned him an invitation to race with a European team which he politely declined.