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Triple success validates wonderful year for motor racing in Guyana
By Rawle Welch
Despite a few administrative blunders, the sport of motor racing maintained its lofty status on the sporting calendar with another strong performance last year.
A view of the massive crowd that witnessed the 2015 Caribbean Motor Racing Championship final leg in Guyana.
The Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club, the (GMR&SC), the governing body for the sport has been a consistent high performer among sporting entities for the past five years and last year’s showing was another positive indicator that the sport is in good shape both here and within the Region.
The GMR&SC was able to run off all of its planned programmes and while there were a few instances of administrative slip-ups, the general consensus was that the sport enjoyed another year of on-track success that most likely translated to free promotion for the country.
Motor racing is undoubtedly amongst the most popular sport in Guyana and this is supported by the fact that it usually attracts thousands of supporters from within and outside the diaspora, a development that is second to none among our traditional sporting disciplines.
Its willingness to partner with other agencies such as the Ministry of Tourism and the hotel and hospitality industries were all welcomed signals that helped propel the sport to its current standing, enjoying more support than traditional powerhouse cricket and has now become a strong rival to football.
Guyana has always been one of the most important countries in the sport regionally and while corporate support continues to ebb and flow, the sheer love for the sport among competitors has made them resilient and willing to make personal sacrficies for the joy of competition.
The Club, however, must be complimented for reviving interest in the sport which had waned somewhat following the exodus of the middle and business classes in the 70s’ and 80’s due to the economic policies of the then Government.
It took shrewd planning and the re-introduction of certain categories such as the Superbike and go-karts to augment the cars and while the latter has been absent from several Meets now, the former is just as eagerly anticipated right now.
The sport is now at its pinnacle, Guyana can now boast of having the reigning Group 4 and Superbike champions in Kristian Jeffrey and Elliott Vieira; two exciting young competitors who many feel will dominate their respective categories for a long time.
Add to that the fact that we’ve now won the overall Caribbeal title back-to-back and it is no wonder that the sport is enjoying good fortunes.
We currently hold the three most prestigious titles in the Caribbean and should more support come motor racing way then the reality of us controlling all the categories is not improbable.
Last year provided ample evidence of the local administrators desire to lead regional track racing and all that is needed now is the continued support of members of the corporate sector who’ve been there at the beck and call of GMR&SC and competitors alike and the addition of new ones to make Guyana the most dominant force in motor racing in the Caribean.
Drag and endurance racing continue to grow and their success last year enabled the GMR&SC to look back with delight and validate what a wonderful year it was for the sport of motor racing.
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