Last Sunday, the Jamaica Karting Association (JKA) hosted its second meet of the year at the Palisadoes International Raceway in Kingston. It may have been short on numbers, but heavy on action.

“It was a good meet, especially for the younger classes. But there was still no Rotax Senior class and Super Rotax was very small as most of the entrants are away at school. Still, we’re very happy because this tells us the JKA training and support programmes are working for Comer 50 and Micro Max,” Neil Williams, president JKA, told the Jamaica Observer’s weekly Auto magazine.

Missing the meet was 2018 Abe Ziadie Memorial Trophy Champion, Shane Chisholm.

“This was the first meet I’ve ever missed since I started karting. I’m preparing for Prep Champs and had competed in the Ardenne Classics the day before. When I tried on Sunday to race, I was just too tired and decided it was safer to just rest,” said Chisholm.

Chisholm’s absence on the track left rival Zidane Madden to collect top points, as he won the three races. However, according to JKA rules, Chisholm is allowed to drop one race meet from his season total, making the remaining ones crucial.

In Comer 50, Brandon Shor made a clean sweep of things as did Tommi Gore in Rotax Junior.

“Well, I felt good about Sunday, especially since last race meet I started off on the back foot because of some collisions with other racers. This meet I think it really showed that I have the pace, so to take a clean sweep this weekend really felt good and I’m going to keep pushing like that throughout the year,” Gore explained.

He felt some of that pace came from his trainers, father Doug and racer Collin Dailey Jr.

“I feel good about dad’s advice. He gives me more of a strategic approach to the weekend, such as how aggressive or passive to be in a race, while Collin Dailey Jr gives me advice on how to better my driving on the track to make me faster in karts,” he said.

As for speed, he was another karter feeling the new power from the Rotax Evo engines.

“I personally don’t have a problem with them. I think the engines are a little bit faster than the ones we had last year down the straight and it has a little more bottom end,” he said.

Luke Spencer came out the points leader in Micro Max after battling with Beckham Toupikov. Toupikov won the first two, but dropped to the back of the pack in the final. Spencer had secured second place in those first two and took the win for the third. In the rather small Super Rotax class, victories were two to one in favour of Sean Williams over Chris John Addison.