Look out David Summerbell, a new ‘King’ of the race tracks has arrived!
The Jamaican Summerbell stood in the paddocks of the South Dakota Circuit yesterday watching his lap record, 34.98 seconds, which he set at last year’s Caribbean Motor Racing Championships (CMRC), get shattered by Barbados’ Roger Mayers driving his Ford Focus who clocked 34.585 seconds.
Since his arrival in Guyana, Mayers, whose vehicle is said to be ‘the’ fastest car in the Caribbean, made clear his hunger for Summerbell’s record.
Yesterday he satisfied that hunger.
As a matter of fact, Mayers drove two laps under 35 seconds, both of them faster than the previous record.
But just when his tires were warming up and the crowd that gathered to see the ‘beast’ in action, Shawn King’s Mazda RX7 spun out on turn one in front forcing race officials to halt the time trials for the group-4 cars.
The stoppage brought a long face to even the race officials who wanted to see the 28-year-old Bajan driver lower his record.
“It feels good it feels petty good!” Mayers declared to Stabroek Sports yesterday.
“We had a pretty good day; the car wasn’t giving us any trouble at all today (yesterday). I also think the car even had more potential if we had little more time we could have gotten the car even more quicker, so I think the car could go to a lower 34 seconds if we had more time,” Mayers added.
“The good stuff will come tomorrow afternoon (today)…I’m not really too fussy about the Caribbean Championship because it has nothing really in it for me, but I’m the type of person that don’t really study points, I go out there to get wins and tomorrow (today) my aim is to win all three races, but as you know racing cars are very unreliable so once the car isn’t giving us any trouble, well it will be good day,” the new South Dakota lap-record holder said.
Guyana’s Andrew King was also fast in his GT&T and Banks DIH sponsored Tube Frame Mazda RX7 clocking 35.109 seconds to take second on pole.
King said that he was satisfied with his run yesterday adding that he thinks he can be very competitive among the turbo charged four-wheel drive cars.
Asked about the lap record which was set, King said that it could stand for sometime but once all goes well for him, it could be in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, Summerbell clocked 35.510 seconds for third spot on the pole while his closest rival for the championship Mark Maloney was fourth (36.228 seconds).
His father, the veteran Douglas Maloney will start fifth on the grid.
Summerbell says his focus today will be on Mark Maloney and if he is able to secure the championships by the second race, he can the push a little harder as it relates to getting back his lap record.
“We have put a lot into the CMRC as it relates to us getting here, from country to country. Winning the championships means a lot to me, it takes so much effort on every body, the team, the club, and the sponsors. It goes with lot prestige and it makes you very proud,” Summerbell noted.
But for Mark (Maloney) he says it’s just for fun but if he can take home the title, he would be a bit happier.
Asked what he thinks about the new lap record Maloney said “well, I’m glad for him because he has his sponsors to please just like me so tomorrow (today) it would be a nice friendly rivalry out there.”
Kevin Graham rode to a time of 35.664 seconds and will start on pole in front of Guyana’s Stephen Vieira (35.969s) and Maurice Menezes (37.112s) while Arthur Cumberbatch (37.151s) from Barbados was fourth followed by Stefan Chin (38.204s) of Jamaica and another Bajan Brook Miller (38.367s) sixth.
Kurt Thompson (39.064s) of Barbados was able to come out the fastest yesterday to start at number one on the grid today in the group 2B class ahead of Ryan Rahaman (39.639s) and Kemal Rahaman (40.580s).
Ryan Rahaman, however, will return to take pole in Group-3 (37.592s) with Seebarran (38.194s) the second quickest on the day. Trinidad and Tobago’s Ravi Sing was third followed by Kemal Rahaman.
Today’s event will get underway at 8:30 am with the lap of honour and then the Guyana Motor Racing and Sport Club (GMR&SC) will get straight into the day’s action where 23 races are slotted.
