SOLODEX IV - Sunday 9th July 2000
Article supplied by CARS Solodex
Photography supplied by CARS Solodex

The fourth leg of Creative Auto Recreational Sports (CARS) SoloDex 2000 Championship came off on Sunday 9th July at Arima Race Club's spacious car park. As with previous SoloDex events, this one was packed with lots of thrills and excitement - from the blazing runs of experienced racing driver Peter Morris in his super-fast Lancer Evolution V, to the long, sideways, sliding finish of Susan Singh in her stock 1500cc Lancer - this was motorsporting entertainment at its best!

The course for SoloDex IV was slightly faster than those for previous events, with some cars reaching third gear. The mixed weather (dry and sunny in the morning with lunchtime showers providing damp conditions during the afternoon), set the stage for a truly competitive afternoon, as drivers, having become familiar with the course during their morning runs, sought to better their times despite the additional challenges of the wet surface.

The 2000 championship had been heating up since SoloDex III, and competitors were anxiously Solodex IV to improve their standings. Four classes of cars (HS, ESP, ES and EP) competed on the day. In the HS Class, Gerard Dial piloted his 1.4L Chevy Joy to a winning time of 62.58s, edging out second placed Wayne Hutchinson in his Ford Laser 1.3 by just under 1.5s. Ryan Pinheiro took home his second consecutive victory in the ESP class driving his Peugeot 205 GTI. His wining time of 57.25s was the second fastest overall time of the day, and eclipsed Ian Mc Clean's second placed time of 61.92s. With this win, Ryan moves into first place in the ESP class championship. Cristian Bourne's consistency saw him clinch first place yet again in the highly competitive ES class. Cristian steered his Honda Civic 1500cc automatic (non VTEC) to the third fastest overall time of the day of 57.25s! Just over two seconds separated the first four places in this ES class, with Graeme Hutchinson, Barry Mykoo and Clayton Jobity all running faster and faster times as the day progressed, in a bid to snatch the lead from Cristian - but to no avail.

In the EP class, the turbocharged cars were out in full force, with six highly powered machines showing up for the day's activities - this included several generations of Lancer Evolutions and AWD Mazdas. The most spectacular runs of the day belonged to Peter Morris competing in his everyday driver Evolution V. Fresh from Guadeloupe where he placed seventh overall in an International All-Stages Rally, Peter shot to a best time of the day, crushing his competitors with an amazing time of 52.68s in just his first run - his nearest rival some 6s behind! In his subsequent runs, Peter wowed the crowd with a superb display of Scandinavian or Pendulum flicks which saw his car go deliberately sideways through several of the tighter turns. Despite these techniques however, Peter would go no lower than his first time, posting three solid 53s passes in his subsequent runs, and still winning his class by quite a wide margin.

At the completion of four of the six scheduled events for 2000, the class leaders going into SoloDex V are Roger Williams (EP), Ryan Pinheiro (ESP), Shaun Mohammed (ES), Nasief Ali (HS) and Alicia McKenzie (Ladies). With two events remaining and the championship points standings so close, competition is expected to be quite lively at SoloDex V and SoloDex VI as the current leaders do their best to fend-off all challengers. How will it turn out? Come on out to the events and find out!

Additional information on SoloDex and other motorsporting events held by CARS can be found on their web site at http://creative-auto.virtualave.net.

Click on map to enlarge

Image captions (from the top):