All plans are said to be on stream for Sunday’s final leg of the Seaboard Marine Caribbean Race of Champions motor racing meet at the South Dakota Circuit, Timehri, according to president Johnny Carpenter.
Carpenter, who returned to the presidency of the Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club (GMR&SC) for a second time earlier this year, emphasised yesterday that the main focus at this time is ensuring that safety requirements are met. At this time, he said, tyre barriers for the drivers and partition fences are being reinforced.
He said also that last Tuesday the race committee met with rookie riders and drivers to discuss safety issues and licensing, which is being coordinated by Cyril Angoy.
Over the past few days, according to Carpenter, the rookie competitors were also under the watchful eyes of officials at the circuit to complete the final procedures of the licensing process.
Carpenter pointed out that 16 rookie riders have been registered for the event, bringing the number of riders to over 30. Therefore the 600cc races are expected to be extremely “hot”, said Carpenter. He also indicated that the regular cutting of the grass and the sweeping of the track had started and this will be completed for Saturday’s time trials.
Commenting on the teams, Carpenter said that the Jamaica and Barbados teams will arrive today while their equipment is already here. He also noted that an influx of spectators is expected from Trinidad & Tobago and Suriname and some 700 race fans are expected from Barbados.
Carpenter said that enthusiasm from the local end has been at a fever pitch and he urged Guyanese fans to come out and match any of the visiting contingents.
He expects that the competitors will put on a good show to bring the curtains down on the three-stage race programme.
Meanwhile, over the holiday weekend, there were practice sessions at the South Dakota Circuit and Rupie Shewjattan’s Mitsubishi Evolution, Shawn King’s Mazda RX-7, Irfaan Kalamadeen’s Mazda RX-7, the Honda Civics of Team Best Buy and a few other cars from the lower classes were tested. Super bikers Stephen Vieira and Maurice Menezes were also there.
