1st AutoSport Drag Racing - 26th JAN 2003
Photography by Rawle Francis
Videography by Richard "DRY" Williams
Article by Rawle Mahabir

The Drag Racing season for 2003, kicked off yesterday under almost perfect Racing conditions. With a large and appreciative crowd on hand, competitors got down to some serious competition, flying down the quarter mile strip.

The big guns in the Open Class attracted the most attention, especially the immaculately prepared high-powered Rail Cars all seemingly gunning for the Sheik Lisha V8 Camaro. And what an interesting battle this turned out to be with each driver having an opportunity to draw swords against the other on their way to first place honours. When the smoke cleared, Feraz Akaloo with his full-bodied V8 machine ran away with maximum points and also the coveted fastest-car-of-the-day Award, posting a personal best of 8.365 Secs. @162.45 mph. And he still cheekily warns that he is yet to unleash the full power potential of his engine.

Raising a lot of eyebrows was the new to T&T Mint Cars V8 Rail piloted by Michael Luke. Returning to Motor Sport competition from his previous rallying exploits, here again we are advised that this machine is as capable as the fastest Car for T&T in 2002, the Showtime Rail driven by Riccardo Pustam, and the 2002 Open Class Champion Michael Douglas. Luke earned a creditable second place with Douglas holding down third place points. Pustam was the best out of the lights winning the Award for the Best Reaction Time.

Hero Boodram easily cruised to first place honours with his one-of-a-kind Hero 1 Turbo V8 machine. Falling back to the 11-seconds Bracket with his normal competitors still completing their cars for this New Year, Hero proved his ability to run well within his maximum power. Second place was the consistent Presley Roberts with his Nissan Skyline Turbo followed closely by the ever-improving Ramkarran Beharry with is Turbo Mazda RX7, who also ran away with the fastest Rotary Engine award clocking 11.525 secs. @ 115.08 mph.

Brian Franco continued his winning performance getting the better of Paul Chung who has now moved up to the 12 seconds Bracket. Sporting some new sponsorship from Chaguanas Auto Supplies, which allowed him to boost his automatic Transmission gearing, the battle between Brian and Paul, two of the fiercest competitors on the track, will possibly be the closest amongst all drivers for 2003. Third place was well earned by Navin Maraj with his Skyline-engined Ford Escort.

Renny Tokhai, 14 Secs. Champion for 2002, moved into the 13 seconds class and promptly collected first place points over Rajesh Ramjattan. Both these drivers run Toyota Corollas fitted with Nissan 3000 CC straight six engines, and got the better of Sherman La Caille with his still to be fine tuned, Turbo Nissan 240SX.

Edmund Fernandes of Sound Research, who loves all forms of Motor Sport driving his cool street-going Galant VR4 Turbo scored a comfortable victory in his debut Event. Clint Kumar had to settle for second spot with his Nissan B13 fitted with a Turbo SR 20 engine, closely followed by Yazeed Ali with his Turbo Honda Civic.

Gerard Pegus with his Turbo GSR Lancer easily won the 15 seconds Class from Visham Sooklal driving a 2000 cc Galant Wagon. Zamir Ali having broken his Datsun 1600, switched to his friends B12 Sentra and earned 3rd place points this time around.

And in 16 seconds a close battle saw Fadak “Flash” Ghany edging out Doodnath Sookram into second place and lone female competitor Erica Jobity-Dinnoo in third spot.

Brian Franco had the fastest 6-cylinder for the day with the fastest 4-cylinder going to Farouk Mohammed.

Taking a break during the carnival period, Drag Racing returns with a bang on the 9th March.

Then a full complement of racers will be out in full force.

Sheldon Bissessar with a totally new Party Time Rail will be making a welcome return. Gordon Rooks with his Tweety Too Laurel fitted with a US-tuned Big Block V8 Pontiac engine, Gary Smith also with a new V8, and the Cortinas of Kent Jacob and Keith Rampersad, Daryan Warner with his Turbo Supra, Sean Ready with his Turbo Rotary Sunny plus some still to be announced new machines will possibly see the biggest entry on any race day to date.

VIDEO CLIPS.
NISSAN powered Corolla's
Skyline vs. Superman (2nd Gen RX7) WICKED
Sheik Lisha Camaro BURNOUT
Sheik Lisha vs. Showtime Rail
Skyline vs. Hero 1
Galant VR4 vs. Nissan Cifero Turbo
Superman RX7 single pass
Galant Wagon vs. Lancer GSR
Auto Nation Civic vs. SR20DET Sentra
RB25DET Escort vs. L28 Escort
Showtime Rail vs. Mint Cars (new rail)