Highlights from the Trinidad & Tobago International Race of Champions of Sunday October 8th 2006.

                 Jamaicans dominate Wallerfield

Story by Kern Ramlochan Tuesday, October 10 2006 www.newsday.co.tt/sport/0,45754.html  

JAMAICANS dominated the Seafreight Fast Invitational Circuit Racing at the Wallerfield Racing Facility on Sunday winning all three Class Three events. David Summerbell in his Mitsubishi EVO-6 claimed two victories and Peter Rae in his Mazda RX-7 clinched the other. “I knew I had a greater advantage over the other drivers because my car is a four-wheel drive and I knew it would handle better under the wet conditions,” said Summerbell on Sunday.

The Jamaican ace said he had been looking forward to his last race because the track would dried out and the event would have been open to anyone especially those drivers who anticipated dry weather. Summerbell also expressed his thanks to sponsors Seafreight Shipping and the Trinidad and Tobago Automobile Sports Association (TTASA) for their hospitality and for making it possible for him to race in Trinidad and Tobago. Rae felt that the weather put a damper on the racing since his car is a dry-weather vehicle and he had to combat problems such as the frosting of his windscreen when driving. However, he recovered from this setback to claim victory in the main event of the day.

Rae came up against local driver Ravi Singh in his newly restored third generation RX-7 and both drivers produced a hotly contested battle. Singh was off to a blistering start and left the pack with Rae his only challenger. But Rae exhibited better braking and turning abilities on the track to eventually take control of the race from Singh. On his victory Rae thanked his sponsors Seafreight Shipping, Primera Oil Company and Dhering, Bunting and Golding for allowing him the opportunity to compete in Trinidad. He said he is used to competing against EVO-3s with 650 horse power that blow past him on the straight. His car on Sunday has only 250 horse power so he normally uses his superior handling of the vehicle to come out on top.

Becks Gonsalves from St Vincent and the Grenadines did not participate in Sunday’s program as his team was unable to complete building his engine in time. “This was unfortunate because my car has the track record at Wallerfield and there was no car that could have beaten me,” said Gonsalves on Sunday. The SVG driver said his car was held in Customs for two weeks for no apparent reason with officials even blaming the earthquake last week for not having it released. “We tried our best and stayed at Wallerfield working non-stop to build the engine but it was impossible as we ran out of time,” said Gonsalves. He added that he would make it up to the public and would return in November.

Meanwhile members of the local and regional racing community expressed sadness that the Wallerfield facility would be closed to racing soon. Rae and Summerbell said they were disappointed that such a historic track which has an ideal location would be lost because of plans to construct a University of Trinidad and Tobago campus on the site. President of the Jamaican Race Drivers Club Hilary Jardine described the decision as “foolish” since he felt they were closing the option of motor racing as a tourism event and are pushing drivers out of a controlled race environment.

Despite the inclement weather on Sunday patrons turned up in their numbers to see quality racing and to support their favourite local and regional drivers. Fans were treated to several exhibition events such as burn-outs, motorcycle displays, kid’s fest, BMX exhibition, as well as music from local bands High Rise and Wheeting alongside food prepared by curried duck champion Sham and also a para-glider display.

Race Results:

Race 1/Group 1: 1 Aslim Ali; 2 Vinda Ramsingh II ; 3 Keeva Boodram

Race 1/Group 2B: 1 Mootie Maraj; 2 Yazid Ali; 3 Aslim Ali

Race 1/Group 2A: 1 Christian Bourne; 2 Ruddy Beekee; 3 Ravi Singh

Race 1/Group 3: 1 David Summerbelle; 2 Nizam Mohammed; 3 Link Sampath

Race 2/ Group 1: 1 Aslim Ali; 2 Frankie Boodram; 3 Fareed Shah

Race 2/Group 2B: 1 Yazid Ali; 2 Moorie Maraj; 3 Erica Dinoo

Race 2/Group 2A: 1 Christian Bourne; 2 Rudy Beekee; 3 Haniff Abraham

Race 2/ Group 3: 1 David Summerbelle; 2 Peter Rae; 3 Link Sampath

Race 3/ Group 1: 1 Frankie Boodram; 2 Aslim Ali; 3 Fareed Shah

Race 3/ Group 2B: 1 Mootie Maraj; 2 Yazid Ali; 3 Erica Dinnoo

Race 3/ Group 2A: 1 Christian Bourne; 2 Rudy Beekee; 3 Vishnu Joseph

Race 3/ Group 3: 1 Peter Rae; 2 Ravi Singh; 3 Link Sampath

A layout of the Wallerfield Raceway in Trinidad & Tobago	Ravi Singh's 3rd generation Mazda RX7. This car will be in Guyana on Oct 29th	Motee Maraj's Honda Civic. This car will be in Guyana on Oct 29th GP2B	Beck Gonsalves's tube framed Mazda is so well put together that is is breathtaking to look at	Pushing the Mazda to be weighed but for some reason it never made it to the start line
Jamaican bad boy  Peter Rae and his tube framed Mazda	Trinidad's most famous race car driver Frankie Boodram still in action	Tank Babolall's 3rd gen Mazda RX7. This car will be in Guyana on Oct 29th	The cars went out for a lap of honour	Erica Dinoo. Erica is a dragster as well. Real time girl power, sponsored by Castrol.
Standing to attention for the playing of the national anthem	Race officials busy putting thing in place	Race fans braving the wet condition of Wallerfield	Start of the 1st combined GP1 and GP2 race	A wild charge to turn 1
Motee Maraj lead the field with his Honda Civic	The group 1 cars fighting for positions	Motee Maraj winner GP2A	The first GP3 event was run off in totally damp/wet condition	And was won by David Summerbell Jr. This car will be in Guyana on Oct 29th
The 2nd of the GP1 & GP2 combined events	The spray from the cars tell how wet it was		Maraj in trouble in this event, he's in 4th place	How they saw where they were going is simply incredible
This GP1 Nissan leads the GP2 Honda of Motee Maraj		Winners of GP1 & GP2	The start of the 2nd GP3 events. GP2 cars ran in this event as well but in their own division	The pace vehicle leads the formation
And they are off, Summerbell gets the jump	Ravi Singh in the yellow Mazda positions himself	The track is still very wet	Summerbell out of the range of the cam leads at this point	Up the front straight, it's all Summerbell
The 2nd pack of cars in a dogfight for positions	Ruddy Beekee screams his Mazda to hold on to 5th place	Ravi Singh grabs the lead from David Summerbell	Ravi pouring on the massive power of his turbo-charged 13B Rotary	Ravi Singh slides through turn 1. For the first 6 laps Ravi was simply flying.
Tight racing between Ravi Singh and Summerbell, but where did that orange Honda Civic come from?????	This orange GP2 Honda driven by Christian Bourne got into the mix of things was running dam equal to these full out GP3 cars	To the end of the long front straight of Wallerfield and amazingly Christian's  Honda is still right there.	Another lap down and the Honda is still in the mix of things. Wow	This is how much gap they have put on to Jamaican Peter Rae who took a while to get going.
But low and behold, the  Christian Bourne caught back up with them	And held on to the bottom of this long front straight.	Ravi with the lead on Summerbell, the Civic is right there as well.	Ravi slipped off the track on the back corners and lost the lead to Summerbell	Slower cars in trouble of being lapped by the bigger GP 3 cars and the Honda which is a GP2A car.
The Honda took the lead away from Summerbell as they went into turn 1 and unfortunately spun in turn 2	Summerbell retook the lead and here he is bout to lap a few of the slower cars from GP2.	David Summerbell in total command at this point of the race. I overheard that Ravi's brakes had started giving him trouble.	Not giving up, the Honda fights back. Believe me, this car is real quick. I have never seen a  Honda run like this before.	Peter Rae in all kinds of trouble in the first two of the GP3 races. He came back strong to win the last GP3 race.
The winners of the 2nd GP3 event which was combined with GP2 cars	Summerbell with his 2nd checkered flag of the day	Checkered flag for  Christian Bourne winning his GP2A class and running 3rd overall.	Race fans turned out in their numbers to cheer on their drivers	Trinidadian race fans enjoying the action.
Trini female race fans out in their numbers	The "Mad Cow" about to do a burnout & sliding display	The "Mad Cow" smoking his tires like crazy.	The crowd on hand loved every minute of this wild tire burning action.	Another driver hyping up the crowd on hand with a burnout
Miss Mountain Blue strikes a pose for the Maxcam. She promised to visit Guyana for Oct 29th.	Sexy ladies and motor racing, a really great combination.	Super car event. Frankie Boodram in the Purple Porsche	The Super cars headed in a rush to turn 1	Winning the super car class in this very quick Evo. Name will be added a bit later
Trinidadian riders putting on a show for spectators	Popping his Honda straight up, much to the approval of race fans	The guys are born and bred Trini boys, great show fellas. Congrats.	A one hand back wheel slide burnout	One hand wheelie
Popping a wheelie while sitting on the handle bars.	Smoking his rear tire as he sat on the handlebars.	Pretty in blue. Companies were out in their numbers with models to promote their products.	Pretty in blue twice	This strange craft flew by Wallerfield. It's a special parachute fitted with an engine. Para Gliding it's called.
And then made a smooth landing.	An assistant holding back the pilot as he revs the engine to cool down race fans	This hard working pretty young lady was busy all day shooting pics.	A live band on hand race day added to the festivities.	Click here for a video clip of the last GP3 race. Check out Ravi awesome power in the early laps before he encountered problems.