TTKA Karting 1
2nd March 2008
Photography by Paul Adam and Devi Nath

Article by Venus Miller of TTKA

The 2008 Karting season has gotten off to a blistering start with the revival of the 125cc Shifter Class.  After its fall from grace in 2007 where we saw just about four karts competing, the class more than doubled in size with ten karts making it to the starter’s grid.  This year we saw three divers, last year’s Rotax Champion David Coelho, Shahinder Singh and Gregory De Verteuil from the Rotax International class moving up to the Shifter class to test their skills against the likes of Ryan Garcia (125), last year’s Shifter and Rotax Masters Champion Gerard Carrington (18) and John Paul Tannous (33).

The day began with the 100cc class which proved to be very competitive with returning Champion Sharaz Hosein (77) making an early bid to retain his title.  Also in the running on the day were Kimberly Mc Kenzie (30), Robert Cadiz (90), Matthew Crisp (12) and Jonathan Mc Kenzie (99). Notably absent was Haresh Nanan (32) who says he’s not competing this year … but we’ll see.  By the end of the day the overall winner was Jonathan Mc Kenzie who fought hard to take victory away from Sharaz.

Next up on the gird was the Rotax Masters where again we saw a full grid with the return of Rajin Baboolal (55) and Rajiv Sant (3) who both moved up in class.  Also in this class were the veterans of TTKA, Aslim Ali (70), Peter Tang (81), Gerard Carrington (18), Gordon Rooks (269) and the not so veteranish (yes, yes I just made up that word) Faizool ‘Buddit’ Madan (5) and Martin Abraham (4).

The, what seemed to be oversubscribed class of 2007, Rotax International  was this year very undersubscribed with only five drivers returning.  While there were only four karts on the track at any given time, Marc and Nicholas certainly made the races entertaining with their fierce battle for first place.  Making up this class were Marc Gill (8) who won overall on the day, Nicholas Narinesingh (23) who came in second, Sharaz Hosein (77) coming in third, Jeremy Rooks (369) and Brandon Steele (134) who was again plagued with technical difficulties and would have gotten a black flag if the race was longer, when his weights became dislodged from their place on the chassis and he proudly displayed them for all to see…. I have my eyes on you Mr. Steele.

The highlight of the day was certainly the Shifter races where we saw Shahinder Singh (16), David Coelho (50) and Gregory De Verteuil (101) moving up in class to battle Ryan Garcia (125), Ray Wong Doo (300), John Paul Tannous (33), Faizool Madan (5), Vernon ‘Chicky’ Martin (76), Jason Chen (888) and Gerard Carrington (18) for top honours.  Shahinder seemed quite comfortable in this class as for him it was a return to glory, Gregory made easy work on his first time out, but David struggled to get the hang of it.  Rest assured though, this struggle will be short lived as I am sure his determination will not allow him to be beaten.

The fanfare though must be sounded for Ryan Garcia who dominated on the day to take overall victory. Putting up a valiant effort also were Gerard Carrington and John Paul Tannous who still have a score to settle.

So to all our fans, photographers and supporters out there, thank you for taking time out to be at the track and we look forward to seeing you return and seeing more of our supporters present.  Thanks of course must go out the Red Cross Ambulance Service for being with us at each race meet.