Suriname, Barbados confirmed for Caribbean Invasion Dragz meet
– close to 60 competitors booked
The heat is beginning to swell as Suriname and Barbados have confirmed their participation at the Caribbean Invasion Dragz Meet slated for October 1 at the South Dakota Circuit.
President of the Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club (GMR&SC) Rameez Mohammed while speaking to this publication on Thursday explained that invitations were sent out to Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Suriname and Barbados but only the latter two have confirmed their participation to date.
Flashback! Mohammed’s Enterprise Nissan Nismo took an early lead against GT-R but soon felt the full power of ‘Godzilla’ and was left in the dust (Marceano Narine Photo)
Mohammed also disclosed that 60 participants have already expressed interest to compete and he expects that number to increase as the day for the event approaches.
A major change at the upcoming event will be the usage of the Time Bracket System instead of the Porta Tree Timing device which is aimed at creating a balanced battle ground.
There are attempts to have a launch pad in place for this meet but the certainty of that addition is expected to be confirmed in the coming days.
At the last meet held in March, a twin-turbocharged V6 engine, Mohammed’s Enterprise Nissan GT-R nicknamed ‘Godzilla’ once again stunned its competitors to clock the fastest time.
The blue GT-R came against its Nismo version which is a stock car and though the Nismo held the lead in the early meters, it soon saw the rear lights of ‘Godzilla’ as it speed away in bullet-like speed much to the delight of the sizable crowd in attendance.
The Nismo, which is also owned by Mohammed’s Enterprise had a reaction time of 0.807s as compared to the blue GT-R’s 1.482s. However, the final times told a different tale as ‘Godzilla’ clocked a time of 7.569s to win the unlimited (7-seconds) category ahead of the Nismo’s 8.906s.
The experienced Shawn Persaud with his Toyota Caldina won the 8-second class.
Though the locals had much joy with the performance of the GT-R, Suriname rode off with the bragging rights of the day as their machines produces explosive racing in the high powered classes.
Surinamese Vishal Ramcharan, who was deemed the champion driver, wreaked havoc with his Toyota Mark-X, winning the 9-second, 10-second and 11-second categories while teammate Raymond John was the victor in the 12-second category with his Toyota Chaser.
Joy for Guyana came via the driving of Imran Khan in the 13-second category, Sunil Singh and his Toyota Levin in the 14-second and Devendra Persaud (15-second).
In the Motor bike category, Surinamese Rajiv Lalbiharie was deemed the champion. (Akeem Greene)
