Q&A: ‘We’ll bring in some more Fuji flavor’

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Open-top freedom on Clark International Speedway — PHOTO BY KAP MACEDA AGUILA

PHOTO BY KAP MACEDA AGUILA

Winners of the BT-50 Challenge take the podium at Clark International Speedway. — PHOTO BY KAP MACEDA AGUILA

Professional motorsports photographer Matthew Romualdez presides over a photo workshop sponsored by Mazda Philippines, Sony Philippines, and Camerahaus. — PHOTO BY KAP MACEDA AGUILA

Mazda Philippines President Steven Tan (right) walks on the pitlane. — PHOTO BY KAP MACEDA AGUILA

Mazda PHL President Steven Tan tells us what’s next for Fan Festa here

By Kap Maceda Aguila

IT CERTAINLY felt like a final canto. The Mazda Fan Festa 2025 drew to a close recently with a well-attended event at its usual haunt, the Clark International Speedway. For those unfamiliar, the Mazda Fan Festa is a branded event that has its roots in Japan. Conceived for the market there beginning in 2016 by Mazda Motor Corp. Brand Experience (or BX) Promotion Division General Manager Eri Fujimoto, Fan Festa is a smorgasbord of everything Mazda — bringing together classic cars way back from its rotary engine days, merchandise of all kinds, after-market parts and services, and, yes, delicious food.

The Philippines has the distinction of being the only country in the world outside of Japan to carry the “Mazda Fan Festa” branding for its own events which, though not as grand in scale as Japan’s, do justice to the Fan Festa name as it attracts a growing number of Mazda owners, their families, and other fans to partake of their love for the Hiroshima-headquartered marque.

“Velocity” spoke exclusively to Mazda Philippines President Steven Tan on the sidelines of the fourth Mazda Fan Festa Philippines round for the year. Here are excerpts from our chat.

VELOCITY: How would you compare this season’s Mazda Fan Festa versus last year? What are some of the things you’re looking forward to for next year?

STEVEN TAN: This season, compared to the previous year, we expanded in two areas. We previously had only one Fan Festa (branded event). This year, we have converted all four (race) weekends into Fan Festa. In hindsight, just thinking about it, (it may have been) too many. However, incorporating all the races into a Fan Festa was probably the best decision we made this year. It gave us some things to think about. We’re thinking that for next year, we’ll cut down the four Fan Festas to two, (and) reserve the two remaining weekends as very track-focused days.

Those won’t be called Fan Festa?

Those will not be called Fan Festa, and those will very likely be run at the Batangas Racing Circuit (BRC)… The Fan Festa is most suitable to be in Clark because of the track, the facility, the hotels. But as for the BRC, I’ve gotten feedback from the drivers that they have a soft spot for it, and so they kind of miss that. (The BRC) is a very different track; it’s narrower, more technical. For some of the race drivers, they really like the challenge of the BRC. It’s a more back-to-grassroots type of circuit. So therefore next year, we’re going to go 50/50. (At BRC) it will be just all-out racing, less of the festival type of elements from Fan Festa. Every year we try to experiment to get a really nice balance.

How do you see Fan Festa Philippines itself evolving though, if you’ll skew it that way?

This year, Fan Festa has given us the opportunity to learn about what we want to be. Who is Fan Festa? What does he want to do? We are of the opinion that Fan Festa is best done with Mazda owners, Mazda drivers, Mazda family, Mazda friends. Fan Festa works best with people familiar with the family, the community. And so therefore the job is to expand it further. In the past two years, we’ve kept it to the drivers and the community, and so we kept it really small. And then we went to Japan at Fuji Speedway twice, and we realized that maybe the way to do this to expand the happiness and joy given that Clark could handle up to a thousand guests. Right we’re hovering between 300 to 400 registrations up from maybe 150 before, and that requires some more attractions. Why should they be here?

There will be more festivities, more food stores, more things to do, more things for the family, like how the Fuji experience is. So, I think that Fan Festa for next year will be more (focused) on owners, friends, drivers, and still have track experiences, whereas the Batangas Racing Circuit events will be focused on driving.

Are you looking at bringing more elements or flavor of the Japan Fan Festa into our own edition?

We’re going to bring some of the flavor, like you said, over here. And you know, we will never be able to, never in a thousand years, get to the 25,000 fans (attending it). Number one, it’s Fuji Speedway — not to diminish Clark which has a very high standard. You can see that the Clark Speedway is expanding into tourism. So this is a great place to build our Fan Festa base. It will always be here. Right now we’re starting to see some families in. I love to see more families and the community. The races will still be very serious, but they will be entertaining to the fans that come in.