This weekend the island of Barbados will host the third leg of the Caribbean Motor Racing Championships (CMRC) at their redeveloped Bushy Park circuit. Today starts the time trials while the meat of the act will speed off on Sunday.
For defending champions Guyana, their main aim will be scrap valuable points in a courageous effort to reduce the daunting lead of Trinidad and Tobago before returning to home turf for the final leg on November 13.
Matthew Vieira (Photo courtesy Mikey Spice Photography)
On the overall points standings, Trinidad and Tobago lead with 799 points, followed by Jamaica on 465 and Guyana on 276 points. Barbados and Cayman Islands round off the table with 202 and 60 points respectively.
Throughout the two previous legs, which were held in Jamaica and Trinidad, and even now in Barbados, Guyana’s touring contingent has been small which would have limited the number of points they could have accumulated to post a challenge to retain their title.
More so, defending group four champion Kristian Jeffery has a tough outing, since his Mitsubishi Evolution 2.2 (AWD) has been plagued with mechanical problems, limiting his participation this year.
The hopes with the cars lies with Group two driver Shan Seejattan in Honda Civic and Group three Nazim Gafoor with his gold plated Mazda Miata. Seejattan currently sits fourth on the individual points table with 54 points, a group which is led by Trinidadian Luke Bhola.
For the group 3, Guyana’s Danny Persaud is placed in second with 66 points while Gaffor is in sixth on 40.
The hope for Guyana lies with the bikers, as the Vieiras have made the Super Stock category their own this year, occupying, three of the top four spots.
Stephen, who seems to be speeding towards a fifth title, heads the list on 122 points while, Matthew who won the Super Bike category last year but downgraded to the Super stock, has 105 points in second place and defending champion Elliot in fourth on 43 points.
Stephen has already singled out Barbadian Brook Miller as the man to beat while some reports have shown Elliot is seeking to break the lap record at the track once more.
Other Guyanese who will be on show will the impressive Calvin Ming, Kristian and Mark Vieira, all of whom will be participating in the Suzuki Challenge Series.
Qualifying commences today at 13:00h while on Sunday the races begin at 08:00h.
Below is a list of competitors that will be in action this weekend.
Overseas participants
Seaboard Marine CMRC Superstock
Kiel Abraham – T&T (Kawasaki ZX-6R)
Norman Chung – JAM (Yamaha R6)
Luke De Nobriga – T&T (Yamaha R6)
Nicholas Gonzales – T&T (Kawasaki ZX-6R)
Kevin Graham – CAN, rep BAR (Racing Yamaha R6)
Kyle Reynolds – JAM (Kawasaki ZX-6R)
Elliot Vieira – GUY (Kawasaki ZX-6R) – 2015 Champion
Matthew Vieira – GUY (Yamaha R6)
Stephen Vieira – GUY (Kawasaki ZX-6R) – 2016 Championship leader
