The ‘king’ of the super bikes Kevin Graham expects stiff competition and intends to put on a good show for the final leg of the Seaboard Marine Caribbean Motor Racing Championship Series at the South Dakota Circuit on Sunday.
The first stage of the race was held in Jamaica at the Dover Raceway while the second stage took place at the Bushy Park Raceway in Barbados.
Graham, who lives in Canada, leads the super bike class with 50 points and his nearest rival is locally-based Stephen Vieira on 45 points.
Speaking to Stabroek Sport yesterday Graham said that he will be doing his best and since he does not like to predict what will happen in a race he will be going hard at his opponents.
Graham is hopeful that this will prod the other riders to come hard at him. The 41-year-old will be competing with his Honda R6 and will be “mixing it up for the rest of the field” although he feels that the time for preparation for the meet was a bit short.
He also maintained that while the motor racing season was a challenging one, patrons will see a competitive day of big bike racing. He observed that all of his races, especially with Vieira right on his tail in the riders’ championship, will be fast but he is hoping too that the races are safe.
Competitors for that event are Steven Vieira (Suzuki GSXR600), Carlos Rodrigues (Yamaha R6), Maurice Meneze (Kawasaki ZX6), Andy Rajkaran (Yamaha R6), Joel Niblette (Yamaha R6), Kevin Graham (Honda R6), Craig Atkinson (Suzuki 600-Canada), Brooke Miller (Barbados- Suzuki GSXR600) and Halquin Rodney (Jamaica- Yamaha Suzuki SSXR600).
On another note, at a news conference held yesterday at the Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club (GMR&SC) clubhouse, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the association Bryan Mackintosh reported that all competitors are in the country and all systems are in place. He noted that plans for the event are being fine tuned to ensure that the championships are run off in an efficient manner.
Mackintosh stated that Guyana is in a good position to claim the championship title while a new champion in Kevin Jeffrey can win the drivers’ championship. However for this to happen, Jeffrey who has 44 points must overcome the challenge of race leader David Summerbell of Jamaica with 56 points.
Jamaica’s team will be represented by David Summerbell Jr. (Mitsubishi Evolution), Doug “Hollywood Gore (Mitsubishi Evolution) and Peter Rae (Mazda RX7) while Barbados will be represented by Mark Maloney (Mazda RX3), Roger Mayers (Ford Focus), Stuart Williams (Lotus Elise) and Douglas Maloney (Audi Quattro).
Guyana’s final team will be selected tomorrow.
Results of the drivers’ championships: David Summerbell- Jamaica (56 points), Kevin Jeffrey- Guyana (44 points), Peter Rae- Jamaica (42 points), Paul Vieira- Guyana (34), Mark Maloney- Barbados (30 points), Barry Mayers- Barbados (28 points), Mark Vieira- Guyana (22 points), Andrew King- Guyana (10 points) and Shawn King- Guyana (8 points).
Country championships: Guyana (124 points), Jamaica (118 points) and Barbados (83 points).
