The Trinidad and Tobago Automobile Sports Association held their first local circuit competition event for 2017 on Sunday 12th March- and it can only be described as dominance by the debuts.
In group 1 Issa Deen reputed to be just 14 years old, the younger brother of Saleem Deen made no joke on showing what a good foundation in karting can do. The youngster in his Honda Civic EK sponsored by Redline placed first in two of his races and second in the final race. Only threat to him being the competition of Haymant Singh also in a Honda Civic who won one of the races and placed on the podium for the rest. The second race saw Issa take the lead by the 3rd lap via an undercut maneuver and brilliantly defended the spot against Haymant whose car was noticeably faster on the straight away. Other competitors of this group were Aslim Ali (Honda Civic 1600), Faruk Mohammed (Nissan B13-Sentra 1600) and also debuting was Arvin Singh (Honda Civic 1600).
Group 2 action saw Justin Sanguinette victorious in the first two races in his freshly built B18 Honda EK Civic, stroked to 1850cc- rumoured to be built in the US. Following Justin in these races for second and third places were Daryl Ali and Mootie Maharaj. It was in the last group 2 race where Aqeeb Ali switched with father, Daryl and he went on to take the checkered flag for this race and Mootie Maharaj placed second.
Justin also ran in the combined group race consisting of 3 and 4 and managed to place third, in the process he ran a blistering time of 44.4s- bettering Marc Gill’s 44.6s.
Out of a short hiatus was none other than Aqeeb Ali who claimed the checkered in all his races while defending Daryl Singh, both in Honda Civics. After damaging the gearbox in his Civic on during the combined group 3 and 4 race, Ronald Wortman was no longer in the competition.
Group 4 saw vast action among it’s various sub classes: 4(a), 4(b) and 4(2wd).
Impressively managing to go from dead last on the grid to first place by the top corner within the first lap of Race 2 was none other than Kristian Boodoosingh. Albeit running consistent 41s all day long, Boodoosingh eventually cracked into the 40s with a time of 40.8s in the last race- his personal best with on his new machine; totally street legal by the way.
In group 4(2wd) crowd favourite Jagdeo “Mad Cow” Seecharan secured the the victory in all his races.
Group 4b the relatively new constitution for local competition saw the SuperStreet boys representing; Ronnie Rajpaulsingh, Viju Badaloo and Joel Jagessar, in their Mitsubishi Evo 4, Evo 6 and Nissan 350z cars respectively.
Ronnie managed to win two of his races with his usual flair with a best time of 44.9s, while Viju managed to secure a first place himself in his relatively new acquisition; the Mitsubishi Evo 6 in which he ran his personal best time, 45.1s.
Notably absent from this weekend’s competition was Franklyn Boodram, Christian Bourne, David Lyons and Gerrard Carrington (who focused his energy on his nephew, Che Carrington in his EG civic this weekend).
The bikers had their own heavy action out on the circuit. In the first bike race Kiel Abraham and Luke De Nobriga were battling at least 10 lengths in front the pack, when around the 4th lap Keil fell and slid into the tyre barrier just on the tricky left hand kink before the back straightaway. He is ok and recovering with minor leg injuries. This gave Luke an advantage and by the 10th lap was already lapping other bikers, taking it straight to the finish at the end of 15 laps with his usual checkered flag showboating. Luke went on to win the next race leaving Rossi Joseph in second place.
In the final bike race for the day Luke was tamed by Nicholas “Gonzo” Gonzales who took the checkered flag. Gonzales had grip issues all day but Kiel loaned him his rear wheel and tyre for the final race giving Gonzo much needed traction. From the view in the timing tower, it seemed that Luke underestimated Gonzo’s new-found adhesion and gave him too much of a lead. Luke could not catch him by the end of the final lap.
Even though the event started a half hour late it was a very nice afternoon of racing, with a good crowd turnout- and it was nice to see the support of the SuperStreet marshalls at this event as they volunteered for various roles including timing and grid on the day.
