The
race gods smiled and the 5th National Championship
Round
of the Trinidad & Tobago Motorsport Federation
(TTMF) was off to an exciting start. Qualifying for
grid positions got on the way at 11:00am. The format
for this is now Formula 1 style with each competitor
given two flying laps to produce their fastest time.
This puts a lot of emphasis on track set up and a
lot of pressure on the drivers.
David Coelho won pole in the Group 1 class with
a lap time of 50.0sec
Franklyn Boodram won pole in Group 2B with a time
of 48.00 sec
Gary Hunt won pole in the Group 2A with a time of
45.50 sec
The tone was set for the day. There were three
class races per group, one handicap race and a super
car race.
The
first race of the day was the Group 2B. There were
tight battles for positions between Haresh Nanan
with his Toyota Corolla, veteran “Uncle”
Tom Miller in his Toyota Corolla, Franklyn Boodram
in his Honda CRX and Mark Singh in his Honda Civic.
Earlier in the day Mark Singh broke his gearbox
and had to retrofit a stock gearbox in his car,
which put him at a disadvantage. Mark is usually
the person to beat in this group. Franklyn drove
a strong race and eventually won with Haresh Nanan
placing second and “Uncle Tom Miller placing
third. Track conditions were 90% dry. The Costa
Jones corner being the only wet portion of the track.
This proved to be a breaking point for most drivers
as this is the first corner of the back S’s.
If you did not get it right at this corner the balance
of the S’s were difficult. Franklyn Boodram
went on to win the other two group races of the
day with Haresh Nanan, Mark Singh and Tom Miller
placing.
David Coelho dominated the Group 1 for all three
races leaving his close contenders Greg De Verteuil
and Christian Hospedales in the dust. This hatrick
represented the first time that David held a chequered
flag at the Wallerfield Raceway. Congratulations
to him for his persistency it finally paid off.
The crow was also thrilled by good performances
from Aslim Ali, Vinda Ramsingh, Ajmal Mustapha and
Jimmy Fifi,
The
highlight of the day was the battle in Group 2A
between Ravi Singh in this #rd Gen RX-7 and Gary
Hunt in the “Crouching Tiger” Honda
civic. The first race in this group was a fender
to fender between Ravi Singh and Gary Hunt. Ravi
was on perfect song with his Mazda spitting flames
on gear changes in hot pursuit of Gary Hunt. The
crowd was on their feet for this showdown. Ravi
Singh treated them to a big spin top speed at turn
1. Ravi being an excellent driver avoided the
catchment area and was back in the race in pursuit
of the “Crouching Tiger.” Time had run
out on him though and Gary Hunt went on to victory.
The other Group 2A races produced the same result.
Gary Hunt won all three races with Ravi Singh in
second. Hunt commented that the pressure was tremendous
with Ravi’s fire breathing Mazda hot on his
back bumper. Link Sampath with his Nissan, Stuart
Johnson – Honda Civic, Mark Williams –
Mazda RX-7, Tanko Baboolal – Mazda RX-7, Daniel
“The Dude,” Ramotarsingh all put in
fine drives that kept the excitement alive.
The
super car race was also a crowd pleaser. This is
a street legal class for all wheel drive turbo cars.
Evos, Imprezas, Skylines, VR4's, and Celicas duke
it out on the track. Nebert Marin, in his Apexi
N1 equipped Evo 6, took control of the podium by
negotiating the circuit track with the best time
overall. However, not with out a fight from solodex
champion Cristian Bourne who spun out on the last
lap with his blue, nitrous punching Impreza WRX.
RACE RESULTS – OVERALL WINNERS BY
GROUP
Group 1
1st David Coelho – 3 wins
2nd Greg De Verteuil – two 2nd places and
one 3rd Place
3rd Christian Hospedales – Two 3rd places
and one 4th place
4th James Fifi – one 2nd place and two 54h
places
Group 2B
1st Franklyn Boodram – 3 wins
2nd Haresh Nanan – one 2nd place and two 3rd
Places
3rd Tom Miller – two 3rd places
4th Mark Singh – one 2nd place
Group 2A
1st Gary Hunt – 3 wins
2nd Ravi Singh – three 2nd places
3rd Stuart Johnson and Link Sampath
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