Solodex 3 - May 2001

Article by Rawle Francis
Photography byDuane Boodasingh and Rawle Francis

The third leg of Creative Auto Recreational Sports (CARS) SoloDex 2001 Championship took place on recently at Arima Race Club's spacious car park. As with all SoloDex events, this one was amazing- we saw the now trademark, long, sideways, sliding finish of Susan Singh in her stock 1500cc Lancer - and the battle of the Chevy Joys.

The course for SoloDex III 2001 was very fast with sub-44 second runs. It proved to be extremely challenging with two slalom straights.

The 2001 championship is at a boiling point and competitors are anxiously awaiting SoloDex IV to improve their standings. In the HS Class, 2000 HS champ Gerard Dial piloted his 1.4L Chevy Joy to winners row, edging out second placed Robert Bates in his 1.4L Chevy Joy by just .005 of a second. Bates had Gerard hopping and skipping all day as he consistently produces competitive times. However on the fourth and final run, though Bates tore up the circuit run, he incurred a two-second penalty for skating out of the finish box thus paving the way for Gerard's victory. Interestingly enough Bates is a new comer to SoloDex, this gives the veterans something to think about, doesn't it.

After yet another hard fought battle between Ryan Pinheiro, William Barrow and Sean Bissessar, Ryan Pinheiro took home his third consecutive victory in the ESP class driving his Peugeot 205 GTI. His wining time of 47.596sec's was the fourth fastest overall time of the day, and. With this win, Ryan extends his lead in the ESP class championship.

The most amazing attribute about this sport is that you need not have the fastest car to really appreciate the fierce competition involved in remaining at the top of your class.

GS class leaders can relate to that comment because current leader Anson Eccles in his Nissan Bluebird and current Ladies champion Alicia McKenzie were racing the clock and pulling out all the stocks in an effort to claim first place when, like a dark horse from behind, last year's Ladies champion runner up, Susan Singh put down a killer time in her final run after sliding to a stop in the finish box. She managed to clip over a second off of her time, relegating Anson and Alicia to second and third respectively. At SoloDex-I Alicia won GS, at SoloDex-II Anson won and now Susan is on the podium.

In the EP class, the turbocharged 4wd's were noticeably absent. Only Roger Williams managed to represent with the Peter Morris EVO1. Nevertheless, the aggressive driving styles of Rawle Mahabir who was also driving the lone EVO and Roger Williams were no match for the Type-R. Cristian Bourne's unbeatable style combined with NOS saw him clinch first place yet again in the highly competitive EP class. Cristian steered his Type-R 1600cc VTEC to the fastest overall time of the day with a 44.289s! pass.