Racer Enzo Pastor was down to earth, doting dad – siblings

MANILA, Philippines – Accomplished race car driver, passionate teacher, doting father.

This was how two elder sisters of the late Enzo Pastor, Sam and Bonita, described their brother, who was gunned down by two unidentified motorcycle-riding killers on the evening of Thursday, June 12, three days before the celebration of Father’s Day.

News reports said that he and his helper, Paolo Salazar, were driving a truck carrying a race car for the Asian V8 Series set for last weekend at the Clark circuit in Angeles, Pampanga when he was killed.

Unlike motor sport stereotypes, the youthful Pastor, who was only 32, didn’t live in the fast lane and was a grounded and devoted family man, according to his siblings, who flew in from the US last weekend to grieve over their brother’s death.

Both sisters were the only people around at Enzo’s wake at the Santuario de San Antonio in Makati City when Rappler dropped by shortly before noon Tuesday, July 17, to see how the family was coping with the tragedy.

They declined to comment on the crime, saying that only their father, Tom, who was also a prominent race car driver in his prime, was allowed to make any official statement about the incident.

Along with usual wreaths, the Pastor’s wake was strewn with some mementoes of his sport: a detachable steering wheel, car racing shoes and video clips flashed on an LCD screen of his past racing exploits.       

Also prominently displayed was a huge framed black-and-white picture of the Pastor family while the children were still young.

“Enzo looks exactly like our dad in that picture,” Sam noted.

“When he was not racing or teaching Enzo would spend most of his time with his children,” added Sam, the eldest of the Pastor brood of three boys and three girls, of his brother’s young sons, Damien, 8 and Daniel, 6, with Filipina-South African wife Dalia.

Formally named Ferdinand, Pastor was nicknamed Enzo by his father Tom after the great Italian racer Enzo Ferrari, Bonita said.

The late Pastor, who began competing as a go-kart racer, showed a lot promise and became the youngest Filipino Formula 3 driver at 21 way back in 2001.

He finished third in the tough Macau Grand Prix in 2009, earning him a courtesy call at Malacanang with former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whose picture of the occasion was also placed beside Pastor’s coffin.

His latest accomplishment was placing sixth overall in 2013 Euroseries Open circuit.

If not competing, Enzo’s “baby” was the Circuit Showdown, a series of races where a race car driver wannabe could race with any type of car either against time or with other riders on a track.

“He was a willing and generous teacher. You brought your car and he would teach you how to compete like a pro,” said Bonita, the youngest sister,  and who was born immediately before Enzo.

Both sisters acknowledged the fact that their late sibling was in a dangerous sport.

“When you’re a race car driver, it’s like a soldier going to war. You are aware of its dangers,” Bonita said.

Had Enzo died in a race-track accident, she added “perhaps the family would have coped with it better.

“But this is different… somebody deliberately killed our brother.” – Rappler.com