The Reggae Racers had a productive day of testing on Friday, despite some members of the team receiving their vehicles late from the containers. David Summerbell, who through his own efforts managed to get his car earlier, had a superb day of fitting, finishing and fine tuning to deliver a pleasing performance in preparation for Saturday’s qualifiers.

On the heels of Summerbell’s Heroes of Speed off track tragedy, which caused significant damage to the Evolution 8, the car beamed with pride on Friday after the Team Summerbell mechanics worked tirelessly to get the car ready to defend King David’s Driver Championship.  

“I am amazed at how well the guys fixed the car, they really worked very hard to make this happen and I can’t thank them enough. We are still racing with the 2 litre engine so the car is not nearly as fast as I would want but it’s still doing great and I expect to give it my best come race day,” said Summerbell.

As time elapsed and the Reggae Racers grew more concerned about the fast setting sun, Stefan Chin and Adrian Blake took matters in their own hands and removed their bikes from the parked container. “I wish I had an entire day to practice but so far it’s going okay as we got some work done. The only change I made was to the gears, I can’t make any more changes due to the short time. I aim to qualify in a decent position, as Horatio Brown tuned the bike, and it’s running well” said Stefan.

Blake and Chin immediately began improvement work to get the motorcycles ready for testing and practice laps. Blake, who was racing in Guyana for the first time, believes that the Guyanese track called for much more than just skill, as the performance of the bike would play a key role in the rider’s success.

“The quality of the track is excellent and the course is not too hard to dissect. The winner of this race will be the person with the fastest bike as this is a horse power track. My bike is performing well, we got it a bit late but we will be doing some tuning to try and make up” said Adrian Blake.   

Unlike the bikes, the cars depended on heavier equipment to remove them from their containers, and Reggae Racers Doug Gore, Peter Rae and Andre Anderson had to wait patiently for their turn. “In the late evening we got the car so hopefully I get at least ten laps of practice today to get some time on the track and make myself comfortable; I hope everything goes well since time is so limited.

Peter “Zoom Zoom” Rae was also concerned about the limited practice, in light of improvement work that needed to be done on his Mazda RX7. “It’s quite frustrating not to be able to have the car early because we have lots of work to do on it after some mechanical issues we had at the last Dover. Especially with this new smooth track surface, track time is key” said Peter Rae.

Though not competing in the Caribbean Motor Racing Championships (CMRC) races, Doug “Hollywood” Gore’s second appearance at the South Dakota circuit was preceded by the news that the revered Audi TT DTM would showcase its skills on race day, during a much anticipated exhibition and last race match up.

“I did just a couple runs today to test the car and all is well. I’m going for the lap record on race day, although I think it will be close in terms of who will come away with the lap record as there are quite a few contenders. I will also be competing in the last race so spectators can get ready for the showdown” said Doug.

While the Reggae Racers plan their domination strategy, Bajan Mark Maloney, who is second in the Driver Championship behind Summerbell, is pleased with his performance, as he blazed lap after lap in his Mazda RX3 wowing fans as he went by. “It was good, the car feels good and I’m looking forward to racing on Sunday. We were also able to sort out the problems on the car” said Maloney.

Halquin “Pugu/Money Bike” Rodney was invited by a local Guyanese contingent to compete at South Dakota, and feels good about race day. “My Guyanese friends have been very hospitable and I will be going out there and represent my country to the best of my ability. They provided the bike, a Yamaha R6, and Horatio Brown will help with the tuning of the bike to sort out some of the issues but I am very confident about this weekend and I am grateful for the opportunity” said Halquin Rodney.

David Summerbell was happy that Rodney was able to compete in this final leg and lauded the Guyanese for their gesture. “It’s a good sign that the Guyanese want to see him race, I think that’s excellent; it’s really a honour for them to extend that kind of invitation to him and I know he will do well” said Summerbell.