Group three racer Ray Rahaman yesterday said that while he expects to win at the Guyana Race of Champions meet tomorrow at the South Dakota Circuit, he is playing the waiting game until today’s time trials.
The statement was made with direct reference to many of the competitors for this meet making various upgrades to their machines. His Ford Sierra has also been modified and up to press time yesterday, the mechanic was fine-tuning the vehicle to ensure the driver gets optimum performance today and tomorrow.
“We will have some competition in the Group Three category and upgrades have been done by a lot of the competitors but I am yet to see them run. So I guess it’s just a waiting game to see what will happen tomorrow (today) for qualifying”, Rahaman explained.
The America-made car has undergone several modifications since last Novembers’ Caribbean Race of Champions and Rahaman obliged Stabroek Sport on the types of modification. He mentioned that there was the installation of a new management system so that tuning will be done much faster via the computer.
He also noted that his team has been able to extract more power from the car. Further, technicians have been working on improving the aerodynamics and they have been able to target areas that were not being handled before since there was a concentration on the improvement of the engine, which is a four cylinder engine.
“Now that we have got that sorted out (engine) we have been able to put a lot more emphasis into areas that were lacking,” Rahaman stressed.
When Stabroek Sport enquired of the change from Group Two, which he had previously dominated, he said that the Ford was built for Group Three and that is the focus at the moment with the aim of possibly entering into Group-4. He said that the mechanics are developing it in Group-3 until the transition is made to the next level.
Rahaman said, “We are only limited a bit by tire size and in the class you can only run up to a 10 1\2” tires and obviously the more power you put in the tire will have to accommodate that. However, the Group Two car is still there and I will not be running it in this race meet because of the need to concentrate on this (Group Three car).”
Rahaman, who has been competing in Group Three for the past two years, said that he will be looking out for Gavin Guyadin, who has installed a brand new Formula Atlantic Turbo-charged 4A-GE 4 Cylinder 1600cc engine, Kemal Seebaran, Ravi Singh of T&T, who is the reigning Group Three champion driver and Khem Lall.
He believes though that they will have to come at their very best and tomorrow will be judgment day to show the worth of all the upgrades.
Dyno-Kit
Rahaman said that he has not done any tests on the state-of-the-art Dyno-Kit but he believes that that it is a good tool to have in Guyana especially if one is competing at international meets. He quipped that every driver would want his car tested on the Dyno to see the horse power that his “car may be pushing.”
He said when one is on the track it is not that easy to recognize whether the car has improved or whether it is performing the same way.
“It is a good piece of equipment to have in Guyana”, he stated. The Dyno-Jet can also accurately diagnose performance or ‘driveability’ problems in vehicles with anywhere from 20 to 2000 Hp at the drive wheels. Research also revealed that the Dyno runs can be done at speeds up to 200mph, providing safe, reliable road testing right in the shop.
