Sunday’s Drag Rivals 3: Reloaded is expected to be a very hotly contested event.

The drag fest is slated for JamWest Speedway, Little London in Westmoreland, with qualifying races scheduled to start at 7:00 am.

“Besides those tensions building since the start of the 2019 season, all the field will be filled with competitive action in the 12-to 16-second classes, as drivers plan to get tuned up and ready from Saturday’s all-day testing, going in the Sunday morning qualifying sessions,” Kenneth Timoll, event organiser, told the Jamaica Observer’s weekly Auto magazine.

Timoll singled out several heavy hitters, such as Omar Evering, who has been undefeated in the nine-second class and Honda Civic racers Lyndon Bardowell and Audie Cowan. Bardowell, having posted a personal best of 10 seconds down the quarter-mile, has converted his turbocharged Civic from front-wheel drive to all-wheel drive in the hopes of running an eight-second pass. Cowan has followed suit, also debuting an all-wheel drive Civic to catch Bardowell.

While the Hondas are the popular quarter-mile choice, they won’t have it all to themselves.

“The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions from Montego Bay are looking to defend the 11-second title from the nitro-powered Civic of Vaughn Brown and several other Hondas in the class. Jermaine Johnson with his single cam turbocharged D-series motor Civic will try to hold off the challenge of Glen Allen’s R35 Nissan GT-R in the 10-second class,” said Timoll.

Racers will be eyeing a potential prize package of just over $1,000,000 split across the 10 classes.

Drag Rivals 3: Reloaded is the third of the five event series, which began in January. Currently, there are individual stagings with no intent on crowning an overall champion. However, this hasn’t stopped positive reactions to Drag Rivals.

“Our patrons have reached out to us, by all possible mediums, to inform us it’s been the most consistent and competitive racing they ever experienced at JamWest. Racers have expressed that our management is superb as we’ve tried to meet the need of every driver, handling track preparations and clean up very well. We also accommodate them all on Saturdays for testing with sheltered pits, water, and electricity to keep the cars ready and running for Sunday’s racing,” Timoll added.