The Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club’s International Race-of-Champions returns to the South Dakota Circuit on November 12-13 and Torginol Paints Inc., pioneers of the paint industry, is backing Guyana’s very own Kristian Jeffrey to excel in the season-ending showpiece.
Jeffrey is vying for championship honours in the Radical Caribbean Series. He will also be competing in the highly competitive Group Four category on the newly extended 1.6-mile track.
In the Radical Series, Jeffrey is 15 points behind Trinidad and Tobago’s namesake Kristian Boodoosingh, but the Guyanese is confident of lifting the title on home soil, and he is encouraging fans to come out and cheer on his Torginol-branded Radical.
“We look forward to seeing Kristian paint up the track with flying colours,” Sachin Puri, a representative of Continental Group of Companies, the manufacturers of Torginol Paints, said yesterday.
Puri was speaking moments after presenting a sponsorship cheque to Jeffrey, extending the company’s long-standing partnership with the two-time Caribbean Group Four champion.
The brief ceremony was held at Continental Group of Companies’ headquarters at Industrial Site, Ruimveldt.
“Kristian has been the motorsport representative of Guyana for almost two decades, and as a Guyanese brand we couldn’t be more proud to have him represent Torginol Paints. He continues to prove time and time again why he is one the best drivers, not only here in Guyana but in the entire Caribbean,” Puri declared.
Enthused by the support from Torginol Paints Inc., Jeffrey, who will race at South Dakota for the first time since 2019, said: “Well, you have the best paint, the best car, the best team…so we’re in it to win it.”
“Being on home soil and getting the support from Torginol, we have a big chance of winning it (Radical Series), so I just hope everyone comes out and support. I know Torginol has me, so let’s see what we can do.”
In July, Jeffrey won two of the three races in the opening leg of the Radical Series at Bushy Park, Barbados, copping the champion driver title and taking a 15-point lead over his nearest rival Boodoosingh.
In round two a month after in Barbados, Jeffrey picked up two more victories to move to 125 points, 22 points clear of Boodoosingh in second.
However, in early October, Boodoosingh rebounded in brilliant fashion on his home leg at the Frankie Boodram Raceway in Wallerfield, Trinidad, winning all three races to take top spot on 178 points.
Jeffrey, with two third-place finishes and a sixth, slipped to second spot on 163 points.
“From Trinidad to now, it is just a short span of time, but I did a lot of work physically, so I’m in the gym a lot and I’m on the simulator at home. So I feel race ready,” a confident Jeffrey said.
“I’ll be going up and do some testing on the new track, and that should put me ahead of everyone, with a bit more practice going into the race weekend.”
Jeffrey believes the new and extended track, which now puts Guyana in a prime position to host international standard racing, will test the skill level of drivers, a challenge he is looking forward to.
“I love a challenge,” he affirmed.
“We now have a track that I would say is not so boring- it’s a lot of undulation, elevation changes and stuff, so it’s now a driver’s track. It’s not about what you spend now, but it’s about how the drivers manage their way around the corners.”
