It was day filled with non-stop, pulsating racing at the South Dakota Circuit when the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC) played host to the Caribbean Motor Racing Championships (CMRC) yesterday.
And, when the smoke finally cleared Jamaican David Summerbell had reclaimed the position as the region’s top driver, lifting the title for the fourth time.
The 40-year-old Jamaican amassed a total of 60 points from the three stages, securing outright wins in his homeland, a win and a second place in Barbados in August and two third place finishes yesterday.
But Summerbell’s deserving series win was overshadowed by invigorating riding and driving from from Guyana’s Stephen ‘Valentino Rossi’ Vieira and Andrew King along with Barbados’s Roger Mayers.
Mayers’ Ford Focus nicknamed ‘The Beast’, came out to loud cheers from the Guyanese crowd in recognition of the new lap record (34.5 seconds) it set on Saturday.
The thousands of local fans all got a chance to finally see Mayers literally eat up the competition in his first two races, winning by huge margins in both instances.
Hometown hero Andrew King turned in two creditable second place finishes.
However just when everyone was saying that the Ford Focus was undisputably unbeatable, along came ‘King’ Andrew who literally pushed his GT&T, Banks DIH Tube Frame Mazda RX7 to the limit to snatch a flawless victory from the mouth of the ‘Beast’.
While acknowledging King’s invigorating drive Mayers said his defeat was merely due to a major tyre wear which affected the traction needed to get the monster up.
Nevertheless, Kings’ win was greeted by a standing ovation from the thousands in attendance when he took his lap of honour.
King finished his run in the series with 42 points even though he did not attend the first event in Jamaica.
Barbados won the team championships followed by Jamaica and Guyana in the cellar.
Rossi rules supreme
After yesterday, Vieira can easily boast that he is truly the king of the super bikes at the South Dakota Circuit after becoming the first man to whip Canadian champion Kevin Graham in three back-to-back races.
In first race, Graham powering his Sunburst sponsored Yamaha R1 600, as per norm was blazing down the tracks heading for a win , but the man known to the public as the local Valentino Rossi, never gave up and kept chase.
His effort paid off in the seventh lap just as the two riders, who were way ahead of the pack, came out of the first turn in front of the club house and Vieira made a move inside which saw him getting the lead.
He made sure that Graham stayed behind him and held on for the win. His victory in the first race would set the tone for what would turn out to be one of most heated Super Bike showdown in years at the South Dakota Circuit.
It was almost like the two riders replayed their first race since Vieira passed Graham at the same spot and also in the seventh lap to win his second race.
In the third and final Super Biker Showdown, the pair started at the goose neck while the other riders remained at the normal start line.
By the time fourth lap, Vieira and Graham were both in front of the pack of riders but once again, Vieira rode superbly like his idol, Moto GP champion Rossi, to snatch another convincing win.
After the race, Vieira thanked Graham for pushing him to ride hard and improve on his skills since he always wanted to beat him and he also thanked his sponsors, Gizmos and Gadgets and GT&T Cellink.
In the other races, Paul Vieira was the most dominant in the local group four category winning all three races.
His run was also emulated by Kenrick Husbands of Barbados in group 2A.
Over in Group 2B, the category belonged to Barbados’ Kurt Thompson and Guyana’s wonder boy of the track, Ryan Rahaman. Thompson, won the first race with Ryan second the two reversing the placings for the second event.
