GMR&SC ‘Race of Champions’ on July 27...Countdown begins, competitors readying themselves

GMR&SC ‘Race of Champions’ on July 27…Countdown begins, competitors readying themselves

Jul 20, 2008 Sports

By Rawle Welch
With eight days to go before the start of the third round of the Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club 2008 Series, drivers, riders and karters are all busy getting their machines into top shape to battle each other for supremacy and improve their points tally.

The sport which has made a strong resurgence over the past three years enjoys some of the biggest support by fans not only those based here, but overseas as well and word is that next week’s Meeting at the South Dakota Circuit is expected to be no different.

The Meeting which is being sponsored by Skyline Mortgage, GT&T Cellink Plus, Carib Beer and Sunburst Orange Juice has twenty-five races carded in eight categories including the Handicap race and all eyes will be fixed on the prestigious Group 4 Division which features some of the fastest cars in the country.

New lap record holder Andrew King, it is anticipated will be present to defend his lead in the 2008 motor racing championship of Guyana against the hard charging Mark Vieira, who recently bought a spanking new dry sump Guru engine for his Mazda RX 7, while the experienced duo of Kevin Jeffrey and Andrew Morgan has repeatedly shown that they possess the skills and abilities to upstage their more established rivals.

The recent introduction of newcomer Irfaan Kalamadeen in his Third Generation RX7 turbo-charged 13B machine could also add to the excitement in the day’s proceedings.

At the May Meeting, Jeffrey stunned his fellow GP4 compatriots when he pulled off an unexpected victory in his AWD turbo-charged 550 BHP Mitsubishi Evolution 8 and with much more development work done to the car over the last few months, he could now be considered a legitimate contender to King’s throne.

Morgan, not to be outdone has also made some modifications and is now piloting a Tube-framed Rotary powered Mazda RX7 and according to sources he has already been registering impressive lap times clocked in the vicinity of 36 seconds.

That is just a shade off the current lap record which stands at 35.07 seconds.
Canada’s Shawn King will be in the midst of the Group 4 action with his tube frame Mazda recently fitted with a new Dave Diedrick built 13B rotary engine that promises to increase his power output significantly.
With a new Cosworth High Tech engine fitted to his Subaru Impreza, Vishok Persaud will be hoping that the mechanical failures that plagued him over the past three Meetings is something of the past.

His Sunburst sponsored Impreza has already shown that it is one of the fastest cars on the Circuit, but getting it to perform reliably has been his greatest challenge so far.

Add to the fray, Ravi Singh of Trinidad and Tobago will make a guest appearance with his Turbo-charged Third Generation Mazda RX7 and Group 3 champion Ryan Rahaman, who is expected to debut his spanking new turbocharged Ford Sierra in both categories and fans are in for a frenetic day of racing.

Rahaman currently leads the 2008 points standings for Group Three and his decision to test his skills against the top Group Four drivers of Guyana could see him becoming a member of Team Guyana in the remaining rounds of the 2008 Caribbean championship.

Meanwhile, it was disclosed that the top Group Four drivers are using this Meeting as a warm up for the upcoming second round of the 2008 Caribbean Championship scheduled for August 31 in Barbados, at the Bushy Park Raceway.

Jamaican David Summerbell leads the points standing after round one with 21 points followed closely by King on 19.