Jovy Marcelo

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Edward Jovy Marcelo (May 20, 1965 - May 15, 1992) was a Filpino race car driver from Quezon City, Philippines who was killed in Practice for the 1992 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race.

Jovy Marcelo came from a racing family, with his father Edward ("Eddie") racing dragsters, motorcycles and speedboats in Southeast Asia (mainly in Malaysia, the Philippines and Macau). Jovy Marcelo began his racing career at the age of 11 in go-karts.

Marcelo studied in the United States, at St. Mary's and at Armstrong College (Berkeley, California). Bitten with the racing bug, he left his studies with two years remaining to pursue racing full-time. With the financial support of his father, Marcelo raced in junior formulas in the United Kingdom before moving to the New Zealand series.

In 1990, Marcelo returned to the United States and competed in the Toyota Atlantic Championship with Duane Anderson's team. Marcelo finished second in the championship behind Mark Dismore and earned the Rookie of the Year title.

In 1991, Marcelo continued in the Toyota Atlantic series, succeeding in Dismore's seat with the P-1 Racing Team owned by Bill Fickling. Marcelo won races in Lime Rock Park and Nazareth Speedway. Marcelo won the season championship, beating Jimmy Vasser by four points. It is believed that this was the first time that a Philippine driver had won a FIA-sanctioned championship.

In 1992, Marcelo graduated to Indycars. Marcelo had a pre-season test with Derrick Walker's Walker Motorsports, and earned a seat with the Euromotorsport team owned by Antonio Ferrari. Marcelo competed in three CART (now Champ Car) events, finishing 14th in Surfers Paradise (Australia), 19th in Phoenix and 19th in Long Beach. (He did not score points in these events.) In May, Marcelo was entered in the Indianapolis 500 driving a Lola T91/00-Cosworth DFS and participated in rookie orientation and practice for the event.

On May 15, 1992, during warmups, Marcelo’s car snapped around at warmup speed and impacted on the right side entering turn 1 at 172 mph. To this day, speculation runs over the cause of the basal skull fracture under the right ear which killed Jovy instantly at such a pace. Some blame the sheer force of the rapid deceleration that occurred. Others fault the helmet Jovy wore, saying it was not the proper size or he only had an anti-rotational tether strap on the left side of his head, leaving his head and neck vulnerably exposed on the right (whereupon drivers subsequently wore them on both sides as a preventative measure). Jovy was 27 at the time of his death, with an unborn son at the time.

Following his passing, the Toyota Atlantic Championship created the Jovy Marcelo Sportsmanship Award, which his given annually to the driver who best exemplifies the sportsmanship of Marcelo.

Links:
May 2002 article from RacingPress.com
May 2003 article from the (Manila) Sunday Enquirer Magazine