Solodex 4- 16th July 2006
Photography by Candice Bhagirath, Devi Nath & Ryan Ramsaran.
Article By: Karen Pinhero

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Well, with a week that started off with plenty of rain, Solodex 4 was looking to be very interesting. Would it be raining or would it be dry? Victors or no Victors?  Would everybody abandon Solodex with the resurgence of Drag Racing at Wallerfield?  None of these questions could be answered by anyone, not even by those who relentlessly tried to guess the results of recent world cup matches.

With all hands on deck (and an eagerness to finish early for those who wanted to try to do a Test n tune at Wallerfield), the setting up ran like clockwork. With a good mix of competitors, newcomers and the more experienced drivers alike, the day was looking like it was going to be very entertaining.

With the call to line up of the first run group being ES and NE classes, the “I’m not going first drivers” of ES class stood their ground and refused to pull up to the starting line, leaving the NE class to run first. With the leadership changing with each event in NE class, who could tell who was going to win today. This event saw 2 new female drivers, with Amanda Ramesar pulling a best time of 103.949, which was not a bad time for a first time solodexer (maybe the lessons she has been getting for a very experienced ES driver paid off!). Last events’ NE winner Narend Sooknarine didn’t quite get the hang of the course up until his last run where he posted a time of 101.288, but not enough for him to place. However, both Candace Bhagirath and Narend seemed to have a blast showing off their rear wheel driving skills, but more on that later. The tightness of the group could be seen with the time difference between 1st and 4th place being and amazing 1.4 seconds, with Vaughn Callendar in his Rover 216 finally coming out on top with a very competitive time of 98.415, closely followed by Anthony Farah who did a time of 98.747 and bringing up the top 3, Porsche Waddel in his lowcost Locust super 7 with a time of 99.134.

The highly questionable ES class again showed that the competition within the class and between ES and the higher classes was stiff. With Mr. Beg, Borrow, or Steal securing a NE drivers car to run for the day, Amir tried relentlessly to push the car to its max, but those ES times were just a little out of his reach (by .1 of a second!!), to finish (probably for the first and last time in his Solodex career) last in ES. This made way for a change in the top three positions in this group with Rayard Hosein and Karen Pinheiro fighting for that formidable 3rd place position, with Rayard peeping Karen to the place by .3 of a second. Mad Crix himself, (Ryan Ramsaran), proved, yet again, what Vtec can do by pushing a blazing 1st place time of  94.343, just .4 of a second faster than 2nd place winner Mikhail Ramadar whose best time was 94.733, showing that Honda’s ruled in the ES class.

Yet again the formidable trio of Karl Winchester, Kerwyn Charles and Scott “the Pit Bull” Dopson battled out HS class in their grocery getters, with some very comparable ES times. It was, Kerwyn who set the pace as the man to beat in this group, when in his first run he posted a great time of 103.619. However, just like bald tyres in the wet, he could not get this time to stick with Scott (driving Karl’s car) coming barging through, only doing 3 runs for the day, with a 1st place time of 100.861, pushing Kerwyn into 2nd place with a time of 101.988, and Karl into 3rd with a time of  103.857.

GS class saw 4 competitors this event with old-timer/newcomer Kurt Pyke in his Vauxhall Viva, showing the drivers that, like Kevin Singh, old cars can be just as competitive and fun to drive. Old faithfuls, Sanjay Singh and Alan Rajkumar Maharaj made up the rest of this class. Again this is another class where 1st place can be anybody’s and in this case it happened to fall into the lap of Sanjay Singh in his Nissan Sunny, who did a best time of 104.043, followed by Kevin Singh in his vintage MGB with a time of  107.559

Moving swiftly along to the EP class where once again Ryan Pinheiro did some ego bashing of an Evo 6. Will those Evo’s ever get the better of the SS classed golf Gti?  It is only a matter of time. With the fastest time of the day Ryan came in with an 88.4 and if it wasn’t for Devi hitting a cone in the finish box it would have made for a tighter finish. The rest of the year in this class it going to be interesting as there are some competitors soon to be stepping up to the plate in EP.

Last, but certainly no means least, the SS class, saw self bumped .phper the friendly Toyota joining forces with Zak Waddell in the Locust 7. Zak, who unlike brother Porsche and father John, opted to fall straight into his class as opposed to going into NE class, with Zak clearly demonstrating his very capable handling skills and how this was the right decision for him. Zak finished with a time of 93.350 followed by Kirk who finished with a time of 94.826.

Competition is tight in all classes as can be seen from the championship standings. Much is to be had from CARS final 2 competition events for the year. We wait we baited breathe for the night dex expected in September, when we shall see (or maybe not as the case may be) who will come out on top. Keep watching for further action…………..