Speed Jam Motorsport Festival: Vieira dominates superbike category in Trinidad on 1st day

– Kevin Persaud also hopes to keep Golden Arrowhead flying high

Guyanese superbike race Matthew Vieira announced himself and Team Guyana in Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday morning with two wins in the Bikes 600CC Category at the Speed Jam Motorsport Festival at the Wallerfield International Raceway, Cumuto.
The victory is only one step closer to Vieira’s plan, alongside fellow Guyanese biker, Kevin Persaud, to dominate the regional competitions this year.
Before they departed for the event in Trinidad, which continues today, Vieira and Persaud spoke of their intentions with the Guyana Times Sport.
“The guys in Trinidad have been practicing very hard, they have good equipment, and they have had time on the track also. But I won there in 2016 I believe and the track hasn’t changed. It’ll be challenging,” Vieira said about his expectations for this weekend’s competition.

Persaud, on the other hand, added about flying the Golden Arrowhead high, “The guys are really fast but I think we Guyanese are better at cycle racing around the Caribbean. We’ve been preparing for a while now. We used the first race meet of 2024 as a test to go to Trinidad, prepare our bikes, prepare ourselves, and be physically fit. So, I think we’ll be on the top steps in Trinidad and hopefully, we put team Guyana on top.”
When quizzed about how their preparation went for the meet, both bikers cited physical fitness as a main focus area.
Vieira explained, “I tend to go to physical training, like hitting the gym, a lot of CrossFit because people don’t see how physically demanding racing a motorcycle is. Even the mental aspect of it, you’re going so fast, you have to trust the tires. It’s a lot more physical than racing a car, you actually have to pull the weight of the bike down on the ground.”
“My main focus in preparing for these races, if physical fitness because my bike is almost fully set up. So, I just have to work on myself now and like Matthew said, some of the physical exercise that you do, you don’t use the type of muscles that you have on the bike when you’re racing. So, it’s all about one complete package about yourself, the bike and team,” Persaud shared, agreeing with his fellow biker.
Speaking on their familiarity with the Trinidadian track, which Vieira obviously put to use on Saturday, Vieira said, “We‘d be fast on the first practice, I’m not sure how fast but I mean, we’re already familiar with it so, that’s a good start. But we haven’t been there in a while, we don’t know what’s the grip level on the track itself, if it has grip or rubber. We don’t know if it’ll rain, we haven’t been there in a while, so it’s like we’re going on something new. But we already know the turns and stuff.”