Carib Beer Stock Car Series - Sunday 20th. August 2000

Article by Nebert Marin
Photography by Nebert Marin

After the poor spectator attendance at last weekend's Carib Beer Stock Car event, Speed Promotions is probably going to try to pull out all that they have in reserve to encourage greater attendance for their next race. How about a door prize of say… a foreign used Impreza WRX or Type-R Honda - hint! hint! hint! Carib and Speed Promotions needs to do their marketing homework.
Having said that it is commendable that they had the balls to undertake such an ambitious project. A new era is dawning in the local automotive world. A fresh dynamic is brewing (no pun intended) and efforts like the Carib Stock Car Series must be encouraged, but at the same time the shortcomings cannot be ignored. We would like to see more spectators and participants at these events.
The day's activity began with the street bike chase followed by the dirt bike event.
Somehow we get the impression that the people that come to see car racing are the same people that change the channel when motorcycle racing comes on. The crowd enthusiasm is seriously lacking when those races are being run and those voids were creating boredom amongst patrons.
The stock car race itself was full of excitement with the tyre smoking, rubbing and pushing antics, still fresh in everyone's memory from the previous event. The battle for the race leader was extremely intense. The fact that every car is equally powered means that any mistake made is significantly magnified because it's difficult to play catch-up.
Early in the race two groups are inevitably created, the lead pack and the tightly bunched racers trying to get out of traffic. The battle for points leader continued and this event saw Gordon Gonsalves, driver of the Carib car winning both races, bringing his points total to 100, creating a tie with Gary Hunt. Tanko Baboolal is still the points leader with 111 points. That narrow lead can easily be taken away because each win is worth 16 points and a DNF (Did Not Finish) is worth 0.
The black flag was brought out early in the first race as their was some careless driving that resulted in a chain reaction of collisions on the straight-a-way just after the hairpin bottom corner. The Carib car performed so well that people were suggesting that somehow it was more powerful. All of the cars are checked prior to the race and rev limiters are also checked to ensure that things are level.
In the second race the battle continued with Ravi Singh making a strong push for the lead amidst the equally strong competition from Gary Hunt and Gordon Gonsalves. There was no stopping Gordon however as he held onto the lead in the end.
The combined race in the GTU and modified production classes was very entertaining. From the start it was obvious that Erica was having problems. We later found out that she complained of a lack of power and it appears that her Starlet's Turbo might be going bad. There was a bit of blue-white smoke seen coming from her exhaust. Rikkard seemed to be having the time of his life winning by a comfortable margin in the Type R Civic. His wife seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack every time he went into a corner.
By the end of the second race Rikkard was fuming because the gas tank of the RX7 he was following was dragging on the track. The tank was barely hanging on to the car by its supply and return hoses. Dr. Baboolal owned that car and although it was allegedly black-flagged the driver ignored the officials and finished his race. We say alleged because we saw the marshals still holding up their green flags as the car completed about three laps while dragging the tank.
The RX7 eventually stopped on the track alongside the pit wall. The pit crew used two fire extinguishers on the rear of the car and on the tank in an effort to prevent ignition; fortunately it worked. The Fire Service response was disappointing as there was a noticeable delay in their response to the situation and no attempt was made to control the by-standers that gathered around the car.
The streetcar drag racing took place with the use of a single traffic light, no, not the Christmas tree type, a REAL traffic light just like the ones used on the highway. Shel Shok dominated the races beating all challengers until the Flying Dutchman decided to bring out his recently acquired Evolution I. The rains foiled the streetcar event but some racing took place.
Ewart challenged the Dutchman and he accepted but it appeared that the Dutchman jumped the start and it seemed that by the time the Dutchman was a half car ahead, Ewart's wheel did not begin to spin. Due to the starting system used it was impossible to determine what really took place. The Dutchman was begged to race again but he declined choosing instead to please the small crowd with some antics which included four-wheel drifting.
The Dutchman continued to deny Ewart a rematch until Ewart's car was brought back unto the track to wait on the Dutchman who eventually agreed to one more race. But by that time, the Police ordered that the track should be closed and parked cars across the top of the drag strip.
These photos show what we saw.

Click here for the results and point standings

Click here for the results and point standings