In a two-part series Andrew Jackson, president of the Jamaica Karting Association, passionate about the role that motor racing can play in the nation’s sports profile, gives his views on the possibility of motor sports in Jamaica.

JAMAICA can do in motor racing what we have done in athletics. We can create professional drivers that can compete on the world stage. And we can host world-class events. Jamaicans somehow are natural competitors as individuals — but not as well in teams. We like to win, and we have for a long time had a love affair with cars and speed.

Last weekend a number of our young go-karters travelled to Orlando, Florida to compete in the largest karting competition in this side of the world. With almost 300 competitors racing in several Rotax classes, the Florida winter tour attracts drivers from all over the world as they move to warmer climates to practice their art of racing. Our drivers with their limited budgets performed outstandingly.

Our team of seven drivers, coaches and mechanics were Colin Daley, Mathew Williams and William Myers in the Rotax Junior class, Thomas Issa, Jonathan Law and Joshua Sirgany in the Rotax Minimax class, and Justin Sirgany in the Micromax class. Young Justin Sirgany was the top finisher, finishing in the top four in his races, unfortunately he was not able to start the final race of the weekend as his engine refused to fire following a race restart. Joshua Sirgany was the Rotax Micromax champion in the Rotax Americas Challenge and the Florida championship. These are no ordinary performances for drivers from a small country with one track and only 10 race meets per year.

With great talent at this level, Jamaica needs a national organisation dedicated to the mission of guiding and leading the development of motorsports, with an approach similar to the JFF, the JAAA, or Jamaica Cricket Association. These organisations over the years have guided the development of their respective sports, through competitions and technical support from the primary school level through high school all the way up to the professional level.

Motor racing in Jamaica needs similar attention as athletics, but it requires vision, which is sadly lacking by the leaders in the sport. While we love the sport, we have never seen ourselves beyond local or maybe regional competition and therefore have not attempted to provide the leadership necessary to move our racing towards world competition. Other countries in our region have done it and so can we – some of the top drivers in the world have come from Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela and we can also do it, if we have the audacity to think outside the preverbal box.

What needs to be done?

First, the motor racing fraternity must develop a national development policy and strategy which must include developing and policing of standards, particularly with respect to safety, developing and maintaining tracks and facilities, training, technical and administrative management, youth development and international competitions. The fraternity must work with government to change the view of the sport. Unlike most other sports, motor racing equipment is heavily taxed; little go-karts designed for five-year-old kids are treated like cars with the excessively high duty rates. Furthermore all the parts and consumables associated with the sport are also heavily taxed.

Tourism and motor racing

With international racing come international people visiting the island for the event, whether to take part in the event or to support their favourite driver, or just to watch, which leads to them consuming the island’s goods and services. This leads to increased revenue for the country. Rally Jamaica, and the Caribbean Circuit Racing Championship each bring hundreds of tourists from other parts of the Caribbean and Europe. However, due to an inadequacy of government support, organisers find it difficult to realise the full potential of these events. More than one competitor has been turned off from revisiting due to complications with their cars clearing customs in time for events, and after events when it is time for the car to leave. Cars that will never see a public road are charged the same excessive duty rates as standard cars. Oddly, this isn’t a problem in most other countries.

Andrew Jackson is the CEO of Jetcon Cooperaton and past president of the Jamaica Used Car Dealers Association