When the fourth and final leg of the Seaboard Marine Caribbean Motor Racing Championships (CMRC) is staged here on Sunday, the speedsters of Barbados will be gunning for the Group 2 title.
Barbados is playing catch-up in the Country Championships as Trinidad & Tobago leads with 658 points, some 125 points ahead of Barbados.
However, a huge score at home at the Bushy Park Circuit in round three in September lifted the island from the bottom in the table.
To win the title would be a tough call for Team Barbados, but not impossible: Country Champion-ship points are scored in all three car Groups and there are four Barbados drivers going for points in more than one group. From an individual driver perspective, there is only one realistic chance to add to the individual titles won by local drivers, CMRC Group 2, which has always been won by a Bajan driver.
Reigning Champion Mark Thompson (Honda Civic), also the winner in 2012, is currently second to Trinidad & Tobago’s Marc Gill (Civic), the only Gp2 driver to have raced at all three rounds.
In all, however, 10 drivers and four bikers will represent the Land of the Flying Fish as the CMRC’s first-ever four-round season comes to an end at the South Dakota Circuit.
Thompson will be well supported by a strong Gp2 turn-out, including his brother Neil (Civic), former Champion Kenrick ‘Snappa’ Husbands (Toyota Starlet), Adrian Bailey (Peugeot 205), Tremaine Forde-Catwell (Daihatsu Charmant) and Quincy Jones (Starlet). Bailey, Jones and Neil Thompson have all won class titles at Bushy Park his year, with Mark Thompson the Hilti Handicap Champion in cars. Husbands and both Mark and Neil Thompson will also race in Gp3.
Mark Maloney (Mazda RX-3) will fly the flag in Gp4, along with Sammy Cumberbatch (BMW M3), who will also join 2013 CMRC Gp2 Champion Kurt Thompson (Honda CRX), his two brothers Mark and Neil, Husbands and Steve King (Starlet) to score points in CMRC Gp3.
The daredevils of Guyana who sit 22 points behind Barbados will however look to defend home turf and spoil the plans of the Bajan bargade. Jamaica and the Cayman Islands are fourth and fifth respectively. A thrilling finale is envisaged. See you there.
