IN what was an adrenalin-fuelled race meet at Dover Raceway in St Ann on Monday, October 17, event organisers, the Jamaica Race Drivers Club (JRDC), paused for a moment to honour the many fallen heroes of Jamaican circuit racing.

“It was very important for us to recognise the people. We lost some of these heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic and these were people who not only [were] instrumental in racing, but in my racing career as well,” Junior Barnes, JRDC chairman, told the Jamaica Observer‘s weekly Auto magazine.

Littered throughout the venue were posters highlighting 17 stalwarts of the sport that had passed. They ranged from the man who built the iconic circuit, Alfred Chen, to photographer Michael Samuels, better known as Mikey Spice. Between the race programme, Barnes brought family, and friends of the deceased to present them with plaques noting their various contributions to Dover Raceway. Barnes reflected on the moment.

“I was privileged to learn from and to be a part of the Peter Moodie Sr camp for a few years. Larry Henriques was a close personal friend of mine. What can I say about [photographer] Mikey Spice? David Bell was my dominoes partner at Doug Gore’s house every Tuesday night, so I’ve had really close ties with these legends and as the chairman I just found it fit to revitalise their contributions,” Barnes said.

For him, it began with updating and reprinting the nine-year signage dedicated to them.

“One of my mandates before the year ended, the JRDC would redo the plaque, dedicate a wall for them, and put a similar sign outside so that the patrons can see them. Once we started the process, it was very sentimental for me,” he said.

All may have been gone in body, but their fiery spirit as racers could be found on track with the new and current generation of drivers. As the penultimate round for 2022, everyone put on a show to maximise their points haul to secure their various championship positions.

At the top end of the field, it was the crew dubbed the Radical racers, Senna Summerbell, Collin Daley Jr, Kyle Gregg and William Myers. Their Thundersport (TS) class battle race was one of the literal record books as for the second time this year Summerbell set the fastest time ever around the Dover circuit with an unbelievable 1:14:608.

“Was an outstanding meet. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. We set the new lap record in qualifying in a blistering lap; I knew the competition had stepped it up and I pretty much put it all on the line to make sure I couldn’t be beaten. Then after that we won the first and second race with some tough competition from Collin Daley. In the last race, I suffered a gearbox glitch which caused us to get passed, but still drove an outstanding race to recover from the glitch and fight for first on the last lap of the race,” said Summerbell.

TS1 was taken by Charles Chen. In Modified Production (MP) class four, Douglas Gore won two of the three races over class rival Jamie James. MP3 saw Sara Misir a double winner to Peter Jaggon’s one, across the three races. Nicholas Barnes won two MP2 races as Tommi Gore’s won one. However, Gore secured the class championship. MP1 saw Ricardo Scott take two race victories from the single win of Marlon Robinson. Improved Production (IP) class three was another two to one, with David Delapenha victorious over Antonio Rizza. IP2 was the realm of Marvin Hoilett, winning two of the three races over Oreal Larmond. Arone Mullings had a clean sweep in IP1. O’Brian Smith and John Steele secured two wins each in their respective classes Super Street T and Super Street N over rivals Ty Ventura and Garth Huie.