JAMAICA Race Drivers Club (JRDC), organisers and promoters of circuit racing, will be seeking to have the island’s two major race tracks developed to Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) specifications by year-end.

The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile is the worldwide governing body of motorsport.

“Our plan is to secure the viability of motorsport for the next five, eight, 10, 15 years from now,” said Silborne Clarke, JRDC director.

The comments were made last Friday at the JRDC’s Awards Ceremony at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

JRDC president Christopher McFarlane said an FIA official through NACAM (North American Central American Motoring Association) visited the Dover Raceway in St Ann, and the Jamwest Speedway in Westmoreland in April for an assessment.

“This will mean that the JRDC can actively go to other countries and bring international drivers here,” said McFarlane.

The improvements have already started at the Dover Raceway in St Ann such as an expansion of the run-offs and the widening of a corner.

The rating of a circuit is based on its safety features as dictated by the FIA, with grade one being given to a Formula One venue.

The upgrades at Dover Raceway will be done between rounds as funds are made available by the JRDC. This would see the track being assigned a Grade-Four rating.

A section of the Jamwest track will be redone and is scheduled to take two months, resulting in an FIA Grade-Three rating.

“We intend to bring Dover up to a Grade Three like Jamwest, but that will require changes to the track layout which we will attempt to undertake at the end of the season into next year, once we get the full surveyors’ report,” said Clarke.

According to both Clarke and McFarlane, the push for FIA certification was not a copy of Barbados’s thrust to redo their circuit, but an attempt to raise the level of racing in Jamaica.

“Once certified, the JRDC can now apply to host rounds of the various regional championships,” Clarke explained.

Many of these championships have been limited to the FIA/NACAM-certified tracks in the Latin American/Spanish-speaking countries. Jamaica will also be able to invite top-class competitors from any country with Sports Car Club of America, FIA and NACAM affiliation.