FINNISH American Harri Tervola will lead a five-car drift team at the Jamaica Race Drivers Club (JRDC) Drift Invasion scheduled for May 25 at Dover Raceway, St Ann.

The demonstration is to supplement the lack of a Caribbean Motor Racing Championship (CMRC) round that would have normally been held.

“The Top Gear Festival has altered the CMRC for this year,” Charles Chen, JRDC chairman, explained to Auto.

The festival, based on the BBC’s popular TV show, will be in Barbados on May 17 to 18 to support the opening of their newly renovated Bushy Park Circuit. This means the Bajan contingent and several CMRC regulars, including Jamaica’s own Douglas Gore, who is also the reigning CMRC champion, would be unavailable for the inter-island series. To help retain some international flavour for the meet, Tervola was contacted to bring his style of sport to Jamaica.

“Fans can expect the most extreme motorsports show they have ever seen,” he told Auto.

Experienced drifter Tervola will bring with him Ryan Kaufaman, Bill Stenger, Alberto Abalos, Joshua Finkelstein and Jason Jiovani. Their cars will range from Corvette-powered Nissan 240SXs to a Toyota Corolla AE86 with a Honda S2000 engine swap.

Tervola has been organising drift events for the past several years and expects Dover fans will love the out-of-control, smokey, five-car drifting.

Both Tervola and Chen hope having drifting as part of the May 25 package will expand the sport’s audience.

— Rory Daley