Karters set for Sunday’s meet
THE Jamaica Karting Association (JKA) will hold its first race meet of the 2016 season on Sunday at Palisadoes International Raceway, Kingston.
“It should be an exciting day,” Neil Williams, director — JKA, told Auto.
Williams stakes his claim due to a new class being introduced for 2016, Super Rotax. Unlike the other classes that have age and weight limits, the new class will run on the bracket racing style made popular at Dover Raceway. Instead of trying to be the outright fastest, competitors will be given a set lap time which they cannot break for fear of exclusion from the results.
“We’re calling it the pre-Dover shakedown,” said Williams.
This is because amongst the ten entries are several circuit racers and former karters, including Kyle Gregg, Andre Anderson and Peter Rae. The bracket racing methodology will test the skills of the drivers, as the aim is more about control than kart speed.
“We hope the class will grow over the year as it brings back people to karting,” he added.
Ryan Lue will be returning in the Rotax Minimax class to start his defense of his 2015 Abe Zaidie Award, karting’s top prize. In the short off-season he’s been honing his skills overseas, taking part in the Florida Winter Tour in Homestead, Florida, last month.
“It was a good experience for him,” Craig Lue, his father explained.
Racing in the Micro ROK class, the younger Lue qualified mid-pack, moved up to fourth, only to have a collision that caused mechanical issues that hampered his overall progress back to the front of the field.
“He finished 14th, but he was fourth-fastest in the wet, which says a lot about his driving abilities,” he said.
Lue will return to overseas competition in March.
— Rory Daley