TEAM Subrau Philippines is back and they want the prize. no more excuses this time. the ten toughest honkies who outlasted everyone else in the recently concluded Subaru Impreza Palm Challenge Philippines are out for blood (or at least sweat and grime) when they head to Singapore for the world championship.

Leading the pack is the same lady who won the local challenge twice before, Apple Balibago, a civil engineer. And then there is another lady, Ana Carizo, who joined because her husband got into the top 10 last year.

“The reason and the driving force why I joined and endured the Subaru Impreza Palm Challenge was because of my husband, who was in the top 10 last year. He encouraged me to join alongside him, unfortunately, he was eliminated earlier than me, but he was there for me till the end of the event,” Carizo said.

Then there are the eight men who come from differing backgrounds also with different reasons for entering the melee. Particularly prominent is Robert Ocampo, the most frustrated man last year coming in at number 11 or a spot shy of last year’s team of 10.

This year, he came back with a vengeance, being the last man standing, holding his ground with palm on the car, when everyone else decided to call it quits or simply fell from exhaustion.

Motor Image Enterprises originally started the Subaru Impreza Challenge in Singapore in 2002, wherein contestants geared up to battle the harsh elements and endure body fatigue in their ultimate goal of winning a brand-new Subaru Impreza.

With their right palms firmly placed on the decals on the Subaru Impreza cars, hundreds of contestants embarked on their endurance journey where they were only allowed a five-minute break—once every six hours.

Last year’s winner, 46-year-old Aloysius Lim of Singapore, lasted for 75 hours and 17 minutes, besting 399 other challengers and drove home the much-coveted grand prize.