Businessman Rishi Kanick who is the promoter for the Llumar series of Drag Racing events at Wallerfield, also won the tender to be the promoter for the Trinidad leg of the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship (CMRC), a circuit racing event which ended with the tragic accident that critically injured 4 spectators on Sunday. Kanick has issued the following release where he talks about the accident at the CMRC event and also announces that his upcoming Drag Race event carded for August 21st will be postponed and future drag events until the track is upgraded. Here is the release from Kanick:
“An accident took place on Sunday 24th July, 2016, under racing conditions on the last corner of the last lap of the final race of the CMRC 2016 event. A racecar became airborne and collided with the stands and spectators at the hairpin turn. Four persons, three females and one male were injured and hospitalised. An incident of this kind is highly unusual and has not been seen at Wallerfield before and all aspects of the crash are still currently under investigation.
As the promoter of CMRC Trinidad 2016 I followed all directives of the Trinidad and Tobago Automobile association (TTASA) and ensured that emergency first responders were on site and acted as they should. As of today all the persons involved in the accident are conscious and seems to recovering well. I am of the firm view that the first responders namely the people around the accident (who included senior members of drag and rally fraternity), trained marshals, fire, police, ambulance and private security are people who saved the lives of Kavesh Sookhan, Jynelle Maharaj, Amrika Armstrong and Tricia Persad. To them I am eternally grateful and must say thank you.
There are many detractors who have seen this as an opportunity to air there voices to fuel public panic in order to satisfy there petty envies and jealousies and instead have ended up hurting MotorSport and its survival at wallerfield.
It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that all drag racing will be suspended until the track safety is upgraded and the dip on the drag strip repaired.
A date for prize giving for Event #2 Fastest in Sevens will be announced soon.
In the meantime all efforts will be placed on ensuring that the individuals named above will be back to normal life in the soonest possible time.”
Note: Drag Racing is different from Circuit racing. Drag Racing is a race between two cars over a short distance, usually a quarter of a mile, as a test of acceleration. Circuit Racing involves many cars, racing around a looped track for many laps. Wallerfield Drag Race track is 1/4 mile long while the Circuit track is almost 1 mile long.
