Solodex 1 2006 - 15th January 2006
Photography by Narend Sooknarine, Kevin Singh, Patrick Nanton and Devi Nath

The unanimous request among competitors at the end of the 2005 Solodex season was to start the new season sooner.  The hardworking team at CARS obliged and set SD1 for January 15, 2006.  Even with Solodex Executive Shaun Pollard being secretly relocated to Canada under a mysterious Witness Protection program and CARS President, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer Kirk Ho Hing in Barbados on…..er……um………business (?), the committee dug deep and pulled off another successful event.

It was lonely at the top for Ryan Pinheiro, as he was the sole competitor in the ESP class.  Notably absent were Tim Kimpton and Robert (Master) Bates.  MasterBates did put on a fine display, however, with his gas powered radio-controlled BMW M5……something about not how big your car was……Even without the pressure of competition in his class, Ryan managed to post fastest time of the day in his VW Golf Gti, with a 102.796.        

The ES class saw a healthy turnout, with a mix of regular competitors, and for the first time, past rookies now were now eligible to compete in this class.   They included Karen Pinheiro, Rayard Hosein, Yohann Richards and Mikhail Ramadhar.  The top two finishers were veterans Ryan “Madcrix” Ramsaran, finishing 2.865 seconds ahead of Amir “Ignorant Ignis” Hosein.  Mikhail finished third, in front of Karen, with Raymond Franco finishing out the top five in his VW Bora. 

The most aggressively fought class was the HS class, dominated by the Wagon Boys, Karl Winchester and Kerwyn Charles, finishing in that order.  Rounding off the top three was Scott Dopson, who gave a good fight in his carbureted Mazda 323 wagon, against the fuel injected Nissan Wingroads of Karl and Kerwyn.

GS saw only two competitors, Kevin Singh in his MGB GT against the B11 Sunny of Sanjay Singh, another novice turned pro.  This looked to be a lopsided battle; that is until Sanjay knocked 1.5 seconds off Kevin’s best time in his third run.  With pride up for grabs, it was down to the final run, with Kevin just edging Sanjay out to take the win in 115.872 seconds.  Sanjay’s best time of 116.883 was actually faster than the ES time set by equally experienced Rayard Hosein in his Honda Civic hatchback, demonstrating again that in Solodex, a faster car does not necessarily guarantee a faster time! 

As in past events, the class to watch was the Novice (NE) class.  There was a very diverse range of cars, including Lancer Wagons, as well as a 2nd Generation Mazda RX7 and a BMW 318i, fully equipped with more three-letter gizmos than everything else combined.  Brian Frontin held his own from the start in his Lancer Wagon, and seemed to have an easy time, even though this was his first competition event.  Another first timer, Narend Sooknarine (Mr. Zorce) took his RX7 to second place.  No small feat, considering Narend showed up fashionably late, and did not get to walk the course.  Rounding up the top three was Yohan Dottin, who did a very cautious 139.112 on his first run, but charged to a final time of 115.897, with all the electronic gizmos off!  Impressive, considering the size and weight of his machine. 

Trophies and medals were handed out after an hour-long session of fun runs, highlighted by a tyre-smoking, SR20DET powered Mk2 Ford Escort. 

Hopefully we will see it in action again hopefully in ESP

Photos: Page 1 of 7