A capacity crowd at the Frankie Boodram Wallerfield Raceway turned out yesterday to support their countrymen in Round two of the Seaboard Marine Caribbean Motor Racing Championship (CMRC). The Trinidad and Tobago Automotive Sporting Association (TTASA) treated fans to an exciting day of wheel-to-wheel racing.
In the group two end of things, CMRC defending Champion Marc Gill looked the most threatening heading into race day, having qualified on pole for T&T. However, a broken gearbox meant that the Gill team had to work overtime to get the car race-ready.
However, T&T’s Dr. Mark ‘Doc’ Williams swept the field in Gill’s absence, picking up three wins in as many races as he ran unchallenged.
He left Guyanese Shan Seejattan and countryman Luke Bhola in second and third place respectively while Kristian Boodoosingh and Mark Thompson of Barbados rounded out the top five.
Race two saw an unchanged top three as Williams made light work of the competition through home turf advantage with Seejattan and Bhola switching places throughout the 12 lap affair and Thompson and Justin Sanguinette making up the top five.
Williams returned to sweep the group two in race three with Seejattan closing up to the second spot after leading for almost half the race, and Bhola ending third after some skillful wheel work.
He picked up the champion driver award but had to relinquish the fastest lap of the day category as Gill with a 44.535 took that honour.
At the group three level, Paul Vieira continued his grip on the class, winning two of the three races on the day while Barbadian Steve King took the other.
In the first race, Vieira came in ahead of David Lyons who had qualified on pole the day before and Guyana’s Danny Persaud. Jamaica’s Alan Chen was forced into fourth and King fifth.
Race two Chen made up ground in the championship by finishing second to Vieira and ahead of King, and the Guyanese pair of Persaud and Afraz Allie respectively.
Race three was Vieira’s chance to follow suit with his group two counterpart and make a clean sweep, but it was not to be, as a racing incident put him out of contention, leaving King the win, Trinidad’s Ronald Wortman second, Jamaica’s Chen third and the Guyanese pair of Allie and Persaud fourth and fifth respectively.
There was a tie for the day’s Champion driver between King and Vieira as they both amassed 50 points but it was David Lyons in the end who had the fastest lap aboard his Suzuki swift with a 41.48.
Lyons however would suffer an unfortunate racing incident that saw him barrel off the track and into the spectators in the hairpin corner, seriously injuring five persons on the final lap of the last race event. A media release was issued earlier by TTASA and the T&T CMRC Event Promoter on the incident and those affected by this tragic incident.
At the group four end of things the Jamaican’s turn the Wallerfield into ‘yaad space’ as Doug Gore ran rampant, sweeping the group four all-wheel end of things. In the first race, he was under fire from defending champion Kristian Jeffrey who subsequently fell out after engine troubles, after which he coasted to victory. T&Ts Cristian Bourne and Kristian Boodooosingh finished up second and third. On the two-wheel end, Mark Maloney of Barbados had to fight off on more than one occasion event favourite Franklyn Boodram who finished second and Richard Mohammed of the host country.
Race two saw a valiant effort from Jeffrey to catch Gore, but two laps in, the Clerk of the Course called for the red flags and restarted the race. Upon the restart, Jeffrey moved from the back of the pack to third. However, it was only Gore who finished that race as the remainder fell out.
The same dominance continued on the two-wheel end with Maloney beating off Boodram and this time Jason Chen of Trinidad entering the mix.
Gerard Carrington of Trinidad however wasn’t looking to let team Jamaica invade his country and started like a man possessed as he passed car by car on his chase of Gore. Eventually, he managed an inside-out pass on the first corner off the straightaway but damaged his engine, meaning Doug went by for his third win of the day. Carrington did however set the fastest lap of the day and a new CMRC record with a smoking 38.494 sec time in chase of Gore; the new lap record at Wallerfield International Raceway.
Elsewhere, Keil Abraham battled valiantly for T&T at the superstock bike races but could not undo the work of the Guyanese Vieira’s of Steven and Matthew.
Country Points standing:
Trinidad and Tobago: 799
Jamaica: 465
Guyana: 276
Barbados: 202
Cayman Islands: 60
CAMS: 04
Bikes Point Leaders at Round 2:
Matthew Vieira, Triumph Daytona 675, Guyana: 75
Stephen Vieira, Kawasaki ZX6, Guyana: 54
Kiel Abraham, Trinidad and Tobago: 38
Group 2 Point Leaders at Round 2:
Mark Williams, Honda Civic, Trinidad and Tobago: 75
Shan Seejattan, Honda Civic, Guyana: 54
Luke Bhola, Honda Civic, Trinidad and Tobago: 45
Group 3 Point Leaders at Round 2:
Paul Vieira, Mazda RX7, Trinidad and Tobago | Steven King, Toyota Starlet, Guyana: 50
Alan Chen, Toyota Starlet, Jamaica: 45
Danny Persaud, Mazda Miata, Guyana: 39
Group 4(2WD) Point Leaders at Round 2:
Mark Maloney, Mazda RX3, Barbados: 75
Franklyn Boodram, Renault Megane, Trinidad and Tobago: 51
Peter Rae, Mazda RX7, Jamaica: 43
Group 4(AWD) Point Leaders at Round 2:
Doug Gore, Audi TT Quatro, Jamaica: 68
Kristian Boodoosingh, Mitsubishi Evolution, Trinidad & Tobago: 30
Gregory John, Mazda RX7, Trinidad and Tobago: 24
