AutoSport Promotions Drags 2000
    - Preview for 2nd & 3rd December 2000

Text supplied by AutoSport Promotions

AutoSport will be staging their final Drag Racing Event at the AutoDrome, Waller Field on Sunday 3rd December.

The focus will definitely be on the crowning of champions in all the various brackets from 16 seconds right up to the Open Class. However, for those drivers who were consistent throughout the year, their battle is over and they are now cruising through this final event having earned enough points to clinch the coveted titles.

Amongst these are lone female competitor Erica Jobity Dinnoo, with her Castrol-sponsored Toyota Turbocharged Starlet, who has proven her ability across the spectrum of Motor Racing in T&T. Erica is the unchallenged Drag Racing Champion in the 16 seconds Bracket and has also been the outstanding female competitor in Circuit Racing and is the female Rally Champion and WITCO nominee of the T&T Rally Club.

Gregory John, having placed second at the end of '99 in the 16 seconds class, for year 2000, driving his Honda Civic, has also garnered enough points to secure the 15 Seconds championship.

Also in this illustrious group are Paul Chung who is a Championship winner for the third consecutive year. Chung is the winner of the 13-seconds class driving one of the most radical machines on the Drag strip.

And then there is Gordon Rooks with his very popular Tweety Too Laurel V8. Rooks, 9-seconds championship winner in 1999, has already secured the Open Class Championship for 2000, and will be seeking to reclaim the title of Fastest-Car-Of-The-Day which he won in every Event for 2000 except the just run October 15th Event. Then, Ryan Garcia with his SKF Turbo Lancer was able to grab top honours and in the process ran away with the title of winner in the open class, fastest car of the day, fastest 4-cylinder car, and also set the fastest time run on local tracks for year 2000. Garcia will not be competing this weekend since he is preparing his car for International competition in the coming weeks.

Colin Ablack will also be seeking to put his mark on the Open class together with Ricardo Pustam who has acquired a new NHRA Chassis, and the Gormandy Rail which will again be piloted by Vijay "Big Daddy" Ramkissoon. Both of these drivers with their much better power-to-weight ratio, on paper, should have the advantage against the much bigger and heavier full-bodied racers of Rooks "Tweety Too", and Ablack's Super-Charged Firebird.

And then there is Richard "Richie Rich" Lawerence with the M&M Insurance Mitsubishi Magna and his stable companion Kent "Rug Doctor" Jacob and his V8 Cortina. Within recent weeks, Lawerence has been fine tuning his suspension which will allow him to use all the power that is readily available from his Big Block V8, and possibly give him a golden opportunity to really show the full potential of this machine.

On the other hand Kent Jacob, is again training his guns on 11-seconds points leader Shameel Mohammed, who has a slim 20 points lead over Ken "Green Day" Gokool. Mohammed, who has also earned the most points to date across the board, must win this hotly contested Class to secure his Championship which he has won many times over in recent years.

The twelve seconds class shows a three-way fight amongst previous Championship winner Gary Smith, Navin Manlal and Oswald Stoute. Manlal with his Players-sponsored 240ZX with V8 power is sandwiched between the experienced Smith and Stoute. Stoute is the only driver with a distinct possibility of earning two championship crowns, since he also is the leader of the 14-seconds class where he is closely followed by Yazeed Ali.

Not to be taken lightly are the high-decibel runners in the Rotary class, where Jason “Puff-n-stuff” Laing with his new tube-framed RX 7 Turbo recently regained his crown of Fastest Rotary FOR THE DAY from the likes of Ravi Badal, Oswald Stoute and Rana Ramlakhan. Ravi and Team Xtreme still maintaining their overall fastest rotary record of 11.757 seconds.

And then Brian Franco with his 38-Special Escort, Larry Ragoobar with his Charmant, both of which are stuffed with 3000cc straight-6 engines, and Ian Lord with his Stag-sponsored VW dune Bug notorious for its wheelie displays, will be seeking to leave their mark this time around. What about the Honda brigade with Gerald Aboud and Yuri Mulchansingh, whose supporters have been having their verbal battles, and are both confident that they can earn the title of fastest Honda in the South Caribbean. There is also talk of the Trinituner 120Y making a spectacular return to the quarter mile strip.

Of course there is the now common attraction of the street-cars competing on Saturday in a safe and controlled environment of the track, with trophies sponsored by Sheldon "Shelshok" Benjamin. This is AutoSport's continuing and very direct attempt to eradicate the very dangerous practice of illegal racing on our highways at nights.

And as is the tradition at this final Event, AutoSport will again be having world-rated parachutist David Ramsingh as our high flying Santa Claus. With special guests from the St. Mary's Children's home in attendance, Santa Claus will then hand out gifts to these kids and also the first 100 kids with gate stubs. There will also be the usual displays by several accessory shops and new-car dealers ensuring a well rounded show for the entire family.