Gore leads CMRC charge
WITH the possibilty of the next Caribbean Motor Racing Championship (CMRC) leg be held at the Jamwest Speedway in Westmoreland, ATL-sponsored racer Douglas Gore is elated.
He currently holds the lap record of 1.06.9 minutes at that track.
The meet — scheduled for Barbados in September — may be shifted to Jamaica as work is being done on the Bushy Park track.
“I was told that the owners of the track in Barbados have dug it up to turn it into an FIA-certified facility,” said Gore.
Gore had a clean sweep of all three of the CMRC races after two days of competition in the Rubis Energy Seaboard Marine Caribbean Invasion at Dover Raceway, St Ann, last weekend .
“I’m happy to take three out of three. We started the day with a small problem, but it didn’t manifest itself during the races,” Gore told Auto.
The construction being undertaken may have thrown a wrench in the inter-Caribbean racing series. Informal talks have hinted that Jamaica’s Jamwest Speedway.
This would be a blessing for the other big Jamaican CMRC name David Summerbell Jr. He is defending 2012 CMRC driver’s champion and was unable to finish the CMRC race, as his Lancer Evolution VIII failed while attempting to pressure Gore in the opening laps.
“The differential broke and we didn’t have the time between the races to fix it,” Summerbell told Auto on race day.
Several other big guns also had to sit the day out. Peter Rae was sidelined with mechanical failure at the start of the second CMRC race on Sunday. Natasha Chang’s historic CMRC debut was halted by broken engine during Saturday’s qualifying sessions.
This left Kyle Gregg, the only other successful CMRC Jamaican driver. Gregg would win all three of his CMRC Group 2 races in commanding fashion.
“Given our position, we plan to compete in the remaining CMRC rounds, wherever they are finally held,” said Gregg.
On the local race front, it was the usual gang, despite the occasional international flavour injected into them.
Gore would take his fourth victory in the Thundersport 2 race, which saw him opt to start at the back of the grid with the Audi A4 of Bajan Douglas Maloney and Evolution VIII of Guyana’s Kevin Jeffrey. Alan Chen won Thundersport 2 when a broken driveshaft dropped Gregg out of the class lead.
Summerbell’s lone win was on Saturday’s Modified Production 4 (MP4) race. He was unable to compete and Charles Chen won the second race. MP3 was all Andre Anderson. He managed to win one Bracket (B27) race as a mistake in race two handed that win to Gary Williams. Raymond Donaldson and Gary Barrett split B32 victories, as did Rhobn Gayle and Othneil Lawrence in B32. Dwight Spence ruled B45N in his Honda Civic. Both 45T races went to Ocran David.
The motorcycle races were eventful, as Stefan Chin returned in fine form to take two class A wins. In class B, Caswell Lewis’s race one victory was marred by an accident that saw him airlifted to the MoBay Hope Hospital and brought a stop to race three. Jason Campbell won the class B race two.
Last year, Barbados copped the CMRC Driver Championship.